Foreign minister hints at policy shift on Rohingya issue

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen on Monday hinted at a policy shift of the country on the Rohingya issue, saying that a new strategy needed to be devised to resolve the refugee crisis successfully.
Talking to the newsmen at his office, the minister also made it clear that the international community has failed to perform their responsibility properly in resolving the Rohingya crisis and the crisis will not be resolved easily.
Dr Momen, who served as the Bangladesh's Permanent Representative to the UN, also cautioned that resolving the Rohingya crisis would be very tough and would require whole hearted efforts from all the stakeholders.
"This is a very serious issue. We need detailed discussion over it. We have to think what kind of new strategy should be taken to resolve it successfully," he said.
"The honourable Prime Minister in her speech at the UNGA in 2017 rightly initiated a five-point proposal to resolve the crisis and I like it very much. But later these proposals were not reflected during our negotiations," he said.
The minister was also very straightforward in cautioning all over the complicacy of the crisis and said,"I do not think this problem will be resolved easily . We have to pay huge toll to resolve the crisis".
About the role of the international community, the minister said, they cried loudly for humanity but they have not played their role. "They have a major responsibility in rehabilitating and repatriating the Rohingyas to their native places in Myanmar but I think they have not done that properly".
He felt that if the Rohingya crisis prolongs it would create instability and security concern in the region, which would harm the interests of the neighbouring countries like India, Myanmar, Thailand and China.
'If there are uncertainty and instability, vested quarters would try to exploit the situation, which would be harmful for all of us. So all these countries should take the responsibility to resolve the issue," he observed.
"I have asked the ministry to prepare an impact assessment of the crisis featuring economic, social and security impacts. Security impact is big concern as we do not know what would be the consequence of it" he added.
Responding to a question about the western countries' criticism about the recently held general elections, Dr Momen said, the election was held in a free, fair and peaceful manner.
"There may be some irregularities in some pockets and the Election Commission is there to probe it. We will also appreciate such probe. And such minor irregularities are often held in big democracies like the USA and India" he argued.
He reiterated his priorities over the trade and investment and said that the foreign ministry would focus on promoting trade and investment in cooperation with the ministries concerned.
He also mentioned that he had already been invited by his Indian counterpart to visit Delhi.

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