Portraying a grim picture of the Rohingya crisis, Prime Minister's foreign affairs' adviser Dr Gowher Rizvi on Wednesday said this one single issue can destroy the development vision of both India and Bangladesh.
He made the remarks at a seminar on 'Bangladesh-India cooperation in the changing regional and global context" held in the city.
State-controlled Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) organised the seminar.
The adviser said that a prolonged Rohingya crisis would pose severe security threat to both India and Bangladesh.
The massive exodus happens on the Bangladesh border but this area is also adjacent to the Indian frontier, he said, adding radicalisation in this area will create a security threat, he warned.
"We have seen weapons are coming to this area, so there are reasons for concerns by both countries," he added.
Dr Rizvi categorically said that the crisis was not created overnight, rather it was a coldly planned exodus and genocide.
The ruling cliché of Myanmar has systemically been doing this for decades, he said.
"They consider themselves to be Buddhist people of Chinese origin and this Rohingya people do not fit into their vision. So they have changed their constitution in a planned manner to deprive the Rohingya of citizenship," he argued.
Dr Rizvi said the Rohingya issue should be the concern of the whole world. If the world community tolerates this then minority people across the world would fall victim to the same kind of atrocities.
Dwelling on the regional geopolitics, Dr Rizvi made it clear that being an independent country, Bangladesh preserves the right to maintain friendly ties with all its neighbouring countries.
"India is our best friend, but we also cannot turn our back on China either," he noted.
"We must be engaged with the Indo-Pacific initiative because we feel that it will be a win-win opportunity for us. But at the same time we cannot remain aloof from the Belt and Road initiative because it offers important development opportunity," Dr Rizvi said.
He was also critical of the USA, saying that once America contributed to the stability of the world, but at present the country has sparked instability.
They are doing this by letting down international, bilateral, and multilateral treaties, he argued.
Former Indian diplomat Sujon R Chinoy told the seminar that India considers Bangladesh a key pillar in its national security and Look East policy. On the issue of trade imbalance between the two countries, he said much of this can be removed through luring more Indian investment into Bangladesh.
He said that the policy of the present Indian government is not to achieve growth for India only, but to have shared growth for the entire region.
BISS director general AKM Abdur Rahman presented a brief outline of different aspects of Indo-Bangladesh ties.
Mr Rahman said despite having tremendous achievements in resolving land and maritime boundary disputes, failure in resolving the Teesta water sharing issue upsets Bangladesh.
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