Resolution of Rohingya crisis sought

The foreign ministers of Bangladesh and Malaysia have agreed to work closely to find a permanent solution to the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali and his counterpart, Anifah Haji Aman, met in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday on the sidelines of the 22nd ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Foreign Ministers' meeting. ARF is a key forum for security dialogue in Asia that has 27 member countries from the Asia Pacific region. Ali also met his Norwegian counterpart, state ministers for foreign affairs of Japan and India, and discussed various bilateral and regional issues. Foreign Ministry said Ali discussed with his Malaysian counterpart the “root cause” of the ‘irregular’ movement of people. Both agreed that it was due to the “continuous persecution of the Rohingya ethnic minority people in the Rakhaine state of Myanmar”. “They agreed to closely work together for a permanent solution of the protracted problem,” a foreign ministry statement said. They also discussed the status of the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers on both G2G and B2B basis and felt the need for “more positive” measures to smoothen the process, according to bdnews24.com.

-SRS