Tapping human, natural resources must, foreign minister tells AAC meeting

Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali has called upon Asian-African countries to develop “workable” programmes to tap human and natural resources.

“Our nations are blessed with vast human and natural resources. What we need is to develop workable political, economic and social-cultural programmes to realise our full potential,” he said.

He was speaking at the ministerial level meeting of the 60th anniversary of the Asian-African Conference in Jakarta on Monday.

This year, Asian and African countries will also commemorate the 10th anniversary of the New Asian-African Strategic Partnership (NAASP).

The ministerial meeting followed Sunday’s meeting of senior officials.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will join the Asia Africa Summit’s leaders’ meeting on Apr 22.

This year’s conference would commemorate the 1955 conference in Bandung that laid the foundations for the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the Cold War era.

The commemorative event would be held in the West Java island, Bandung, on April 24.

The original conference in 1955 was led by Indonesian independence hero Sukarno.

It gathered around 30 countries, many of them were newly independent states after decades of colonialism and foreign occupation.

Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser were among the other leaders who founded the NAM several years later.

NAM is an organisation for countries that did not want to take sides during the Cold War with either the US or Soviet Union.

The theme of this year’s summit is strengthening “south-south cooperation to promote world peace and prosperity”.

The foreign minister in his speech underscored the importance of a “truly interdependent and mutually supportive” South-South cooperation in line with the Bandung Spirit.

He praised the “significant” strides made by both Asia and Africa in promoting human rights, rule of law and democracy, improving the status of women, and working towards equality and non-discrimination.

At the same time, he underlined some of the daunting challenges before the two continents, including poverty, communicable diseases, climate change, digital divide, and inequitable market access.

He reaffirmed Bangladesh’s steadfast support to the Palestinian people and to the creation of a viable and sovereign Palestinian state, in accordance with UN resolutions.

H also reiterated Bandung’s fundamental undertaking of supporting any just struggle against colonialism and foreign occupation.

The minister further stressed the need for meaningfully addressing the long-standing resource and capacity constraints of the developing countries, LDCs in particular, during the formulation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

He also emphasised the need to model a robust and broad-based global partnership in the light of the principles of mutual trust and respect, common but differentiated responsibility.

At least 35 ministers from the as many countries of Asia and Africa have attended the ministerial meeting.

State Minister for foreign affairs M Shahriar Alam earlier addressing a press briefing in Dhaka on Monday said the government had taken steps to strengthen its relations with African countries.

He said Bangladesh was working on opening news missions in different African nations including Ethiopia, where the 54-country African Union is headquartered.