Foreign Minister of Bangladesh Dr Dipu Moni said on Saturday that Bangladesh has taken initiatives to float the planned South Asia Regional Task Force to address a series of emerging challenges in a co-ordinated manner.
"We have already requested our neighbouring countries including Pakistan and India to share ideas in this regard," she said at a dialogue on "Bangladeshs Foreign Policy and Foreign Relations: Priorities, Challenges and Opportunities", organised by Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) in Dhaka. With BEI President Faruq Sobhan in the chair, the discussion was addressed by diplomats, former ambassadors and foreign policy experts.
Chairman of BEI Board of Governors, Salman F. Rahman gave the welcome speech at the dialogue, while the discussants included Editor of The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam. The foreign minister said that South Asia has become a least integrated region in the world and that is why a high level of regional integration is a must to face the challenges including security, investment and economic prosperity in the region.
Dr Dipu Moni described preservation of the countrys independence, maintaining security and equitable water sharing with neighbouring countries as the areas of Bangladeshs foreign policy. She said the countries of South Asia could reap equal benefit by following their respective foreign policy guidelines. Terrorism has posed a serious challenge for most of the countries in South Asia, she said adding that the Awami League government is committed to curbing terrorism and extremism to ensure security of the people.
Dr Dipu Moni favoured restructuring of Bangladeshs missions abroad for increasing trade and investment with other countries, and addressing the migrant workers issue. Diminishing migration cost and increasing foreign direct investment (FDI) are the targeted areas of the governments foreign policy, said the minister.
Barrister Harun-ur-Rashid, a former ambassador, put forward a set of recommendations saying Bangladesh should pursue a regional approach to deal with a number of confronting issues like water sharing, energy, terrorism and extremism. Ambassador Ashfaqur Rahman, Chairman of Centre for Foreign Affairs Studies (CFAS), recommended that the government should hold an annual parliamentary debate on foreign affairs for the sake of the countrys interest.
The former diplomats suggested holding more discussions in parliament on foreign policy guidelines for increasing regional integration. They underscored the need for serious regional concentration on terrorism rather than ensuring investment and trade, as once the county is free from terrorism, there would be economic prosperity automatically.