Speakers, including foreign diplomats and experts, at an international conference in Dhaka city on Monday said that peace and stability in all countries across the Indo-Pacific was crucial as the future of the world was depending on the region — home to the half of the world’s population.
They also underlined the need for poverty alleviation, greater connectivity and quality education for a sustainable development in the region on the first day of the three-day Bay of Bengal Conversation hosted by the Centre for Governance Studies, a Bangladeshi non-government think tank, at a city hotel with some 600 participants of whom about 200 delegates were from 70 countries.
Addressing a panel discussion titled ‘Untangling the Myriad of Multilateral Frameworks in the Indo-Pacific’, United Sates ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas said that much of the future would be written right here in the Indo-Pacific.
‘Stretching from the Pacific coastline of the United States to the Indian Ocean, the Indo-Pacific is the most dynamic region in the world. It is home to more than half of the world’s people and nearly two-thirds of the world’s economy. What happens here affects the entire world,’ he said.
He said that they saw two challenges in achieving the US vision for the region —rising competition from autocracies and looming transnational threats, like climate change.
‘We seek to work with Bangladesh and other partners to build an Indo-Pacific that has five elements. We want a region that is free and open, interconnected, prosperous, secure and resilient,’ the US diplomat added.
He said that the United States would bolster Indo-Pacific security.
‘We will continue to work on these issues and grow our economic partnership bilaterally with all nations, including Bangladesh,’ the US ambassador said.
‘For 75 years, the United States has maintained a strong and consistent defence presence in the region and will continue to contribute to the region’s stability and peace,’ Peter Haas said.
Japanese ambassador Ito Naoki, British High Commissioner Robert Chatterton Dickson and Australian High Commissioner Jeremy Bruer to Bangladesh also said that they wanted a free, open, stable and resilient Indo-Pacific.
The US ambassador said, ‘A big security challenge to the region’s stability is the brutal military coup in Burma and the genocide against Rohingya.’
Ito Naoki said that they wanted peace and stability in all countries across the Indo-Pacific region.
‘We should not allow [the issue of] Rohingya people to destabilise the region,’ he said.
Pter Haas, however said that China was the only country with both the intent to reshape the international order and to increase the economic, diplomatic, military, and technological power to do it.
Former president of Serbia Boris Tadic spoke on the inaugural session with CGS chair Manjur A Chowdhury in the chair while Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen, who was scheduled to address the inaugural session as chief guest, was absent.
Home affairs minister Asaduzzaman Khan, who was invited to another session, also refrained from attending the event.
Tadic said that it was a specific situation as the world order would change after the Ukraine-Russia war.
‘After this war, we would not live in the same world,’ the Serbian politician said.
The session on ‘The Integration Agenda: A Roadmap Towards SDGs’ was addressed by distinguished fellow of the Centre for Policy Dialogue Debapriya Bhattacharya, Deputy Resident Representative of the UNDP Bangladesh Van Nguyen, Research Director of the Nepal Institute for International Cooperation and Engagement Pramod Jaiswal, Lead Academic of Curtin University Asif Iqbal Siddiqui and former foreign secretary of Pakistan Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry with Sayema Haque Bidisha, professor of economics at the University of Dhaka as the moderator.
Debapriya Bhattacharya said that the people of this region would live a better life if the leaders could ensure the rule of law and human rights.
News Courtesy:
https://www.newagebd.net/article/187106/coup-genocide-in-myanmar-termed-big-challenge