Bangladesh to remain reliable partner of UN in fighting terrorism, violent extremism

Bangladesh has reaffirmed its commitment to remain a “reliable partner” of the UN in fighting terrorism and preventing violent extremism “globally, regionally and nationally”.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 8 April 2016, 06:35 PM
Updated : 8 April 2016, 06:50 PM

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam conveyed Bangladesh’s position to the global conference on preventing violent extremism in Geneva on Friday.

The UN and the Swiss government jointly hosted the conference attended by ministers from Belgium, Cameroon, Mauritania, Sudan, the UK, Maldives, Malaysia, Czech Republic, Guinea Bissau, and Luxemburg, among others.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Swiss Foreign Minister Didier Burkhalter delivered the keynote statements as co-chairs of the conference.

Shahriar Alam said violent extremists do not belong to any religion. “We denounce the use of religion to justify violent extremist acts. We reject any narrow, misinformed interpretation of Islam, our religion of peace”.

He also reiterated Bangladesh’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards terrorism and violent extremism, and said the country was also “making progress in stemming the flow of terrorist financing”.

The state minister highlighted the need to address the root causes of terrorism and violent extremism.

He underlined Bangladesh's partnership with the Global Community Engagement and Resilience Fund (GCERF) to further work through community-based organisations.

The state minister also had a bilateral meeting with British Minister of State of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Baroness Anelay and discussed “further strengthening” the areas of mutual cooperation.

He requested her to look into the issue of the “ongoing difficulties” of getting British visa by Bangladeshis.

He met Baroness Patricia Scotland, the newly appointed Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, on the sidelines.

She briefed the state minister about Commonwealth's future plans in the field of preventing violent extremism, including the idea of more intense cooperation between the judiciaries among the Commonwealth countries.

Alam had a “close interaction” with UN chief Ban during the lunch that he and the Swiss foreign minister hosted.