Foreign minister Dr Hasan Mahmud today said economic diplomacy would be the major focus of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s new government while Dhaka would continue to work with countries both in eastern and western hemispheres.
“I will lay emphasis on economic diplomacy as my major focus,” he said in his maiden interaction with the mainstream media after assuming the charge of his new portfolio.
He said Dhaka was particularly keen to explore expanded economic ties with African and South American nations as part of the economic diplomacy.
Mahmud said maintaining relations with countries in the East and Western hemispheres appeared as a major challenge against the backdrop of growing global polarization.
But, he said, Bangladesh would stick to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s foreign policy doctrine – friendship to all, malice towards none.
Regarding the 12th general election, the foreign minister said the polls were free and fair and envoys of the US, UK and all other countries have congratulated the new government and expressed their willingness to work with Dhaka.
“All the countries in the east and the west have already expressed their willingness to work with us, with the government. At the end of the day, they are our development partners and we will work together,” he said.
He said a good number of election observers from the USA, EU, OIC and commonwealth countries oversaw the election while in their primary observation they said the polls were fair and were held amid festivity with people’s participation.
Responding to a question, the minister said the new government was not feeling any external pressure as countries in both east and western nations by now showed their interest to work with Dhaka though the election process witnessed pressures of different types.
“We are not feeling any pressure. There were many pressures over election . . . deep pressure, medium pressure – there were various pressures. But the election was held overcoming all pressures. So, we never feel any pressure,” he said.
Mahmud, however, said “different countries have different perspectives, narratives” while “we do value them and at the end of the day we will work with all (of them)”.
The minister said he would also work on ensuring remittance through legal channels in view of pressures on foreign currency reserves.
Responding a question on Rohingya crisis, the foreign minister showed his optimism that the issue could be resolved diplomatically.
“We remain engaged with Myanmar. We hope this problem will be resolved diplomatically,” he said.
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and Maritime Affairs Unit Secretary Rear Admiral (retd) Khurshed Alam were present during the interaction.
