‘Turkey to take Rohingya issue to UNSC’

Turkey has assured Bangladesh of raising the Rohingya issue at the next meeting of the UN Security Council (UNSC) as Rohingya problem remains unresolved putting much burden on Bangladesh.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu made the assurance during a telephone conversation with his Bangladesh counterpart AK Abdul Momen on Saturday.

The Turkish foreign minister also assured Bangladesh of extending all required support to repatriate the Rohingyas to their place of origin in Rakhine state of Myanmar.

Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas, most of them entered Bangladesh since 25 August, 2017.

Momen requested the Turkish minister to arrange a virtual session at the director general level before the next D-8 Summit considering the current situation.

He also suggested forming a working group of D-8 to strengthen economic cooperation in post-coronavirus period.

The Turkish foreign minister agreed on the ideas shared by the Bangladesh foreign minister.

Turkey is now the chair of the D-8 or Developing-8.

The Turkish minister expressed interest to provide 100,000 surgical and N95 masks for Bangladesh.