Bangladesh, Myanmar show maturity by not raising Rohingya issue at BIMSTEC summit: Official

The secretary general of the BIMSTEC has said member states, including Bangladesh and Myanmar, have shown their “diplomatic maturity” by not raising the Rohingya issue at the just-concluded Summit in Kathmandu.

Nobody denies the crisis and Bangladesh and Myanmar should remain engaged to resolve the issue, Ambassador Shahidul Islam said at a press briefing on Monday.

But cooperation in trade, investment and technology should also move on, he said. 

“From the vantage point of the secretariat, we feel that Bangladesh and Myanmar have shown diplomatic maturity by not raising the issue when the organisaton is not ready to deal with an issue such as this,” Islam said, replying to a question.

Every organisation has its own characteristics and BIMSTEC is meant for the technical and economic cooperation, he said.

Asked whether it is possible to move forward keeping a major issue aside, Islam said, “It is possible to work on the issues where we have clear consensus.”

“Progress in areas where we have a consensus should not suffer for the areas where we don’t have a consensus. We continue to keep up progress in trade, investment, connectivity and energy cooperation.”

“No member states actually proposed that the Rohingya issue should be on the agenda. So that has not been on the agenda so there was no scope for holding discussions on this,” Islam said.

“The agenda was prepared and circulated by the host country [Nepal] and it was agreed upon by the member states.”

Bilaterally, Bangladesh and Myanmar have not stopped trade despite differences they have on the Rohingya issue, according to Islam.

“The ability to compartmentalise issues is a sign of maturity on the part of member states and that would lead to the hope of the future of this organisaton.”

Bangladesh provided shelter to over 700,000 Rohingyas who fled ethnic cleansing from the Rakhine State in a year and is now working on their repatriation with the support of the international community who are asking Myanmar to create a conducive environment for them.

The South and Southeast Asian leaders under the BIMSTEC framework in their summit on Aug 30-31 have taken a number of decisions to give the cooperation a boost.

Those include institutional reform, poverty alleviation, transport and communications, trade and investment, counter terrorism, climate change, energy, technology, agriculture, fisheries, public health, people-to-people contact, cultural cooperation, and tourism among others.

They also signed an MoU for grid connectivity.

But the Rohingya crisis that received global attention has not been on the agenda.

The secretary general said the summit has been a “successful” event where the leaders have made an attempt to review the achievements during the past 20 years.

“Holding the summit after a four-year gap is already a positive thing and there was an urge to move forward,” Islam said.

“We have received a number of decisions on which we need close follow-up and if we can follow up properly, I think it will be very good for the future cooperation among member states in the Bay of Bengal region.”

Islam said they decided to establish a BIMSTEC development fund.

“If we can do that within a reasonable timeframe, that will be very helpful to finance BIMSTEC studies and projects for promoting regional cooperation in energy, trade, investment and many areas.”