Returning to Ziaur Rahman's foreign policy: Foreign Minister

Foreign Minister Dr. Khalilur Rahman has said that Bangladesh’s foreign policy will be guided by principles of mutual respect for sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, national dignity, and reciprocal benefit, rejecting any one-sided arrangements. He emphasized that the country would carefully safeguard its national interests in all diplomatic engagements.

He added that, in a sense, the government is returning to the foreign policy approach of late President Ziaur Rahman. According to the minister, the interim government has been working to pursue that direction in its external relations.

Foreign Minister Dr. Khalilur Rahman, State Minister Shama Obaid held a meeting with visiting Nepalese Foreign Minister Bala Nanda Sharma at the State Guest House Padma. He told these things to reporters after the meeting on Wednesday evening (February 18).

Dr. Khalilur Rahman said, "When I joined Foreign Affairs, I remember three very courageous steps. In 1974, we became a member of the United Nations." Within four years, he decided to elect us to the Security Council and we won that election by defeating a power like Japan.

He said, secondly, there was SAARC. He talked about this connectivity in a most unconnected region and the great work he did to establish SAARC.

Thirdly, his role in the Al-Quds Committee in maintaining regional and world peace, meaning our foreign policy was not only positive but also very extensive, we want to return to that place. I think Bangladesh cannot play a role according to its own capacity, we want to do that. You will see, those issues will prevail in our foreign policy.

In response to a question, the Foreign Minister said, we want to maintain good relations with all countries, while maintaining our interests.

In another question, he said, the attention we had on the Rohingya issue will not decrease in any way, but will increase. During this interim government, we contacted the Myanmar government and the Arakan Army, and we contacted the Arakan Army first. Those contacts will continue, we will try to find a solution to this problem and I am optimistic about this.

State Minister for Foreign Minister Shama Obaid said, of course the responsibility is challenging, equally interesting and our foreign policy, what our foreign minister said, what the BNP aims at is that we will protect the interests of the people of Bangladesh and maintain good relations with everyone and our foreign policy for change after seventeen years, it will reflect the wishes and aspirations of our people. That is our foreign policy, that is what we want to move towards.