The Western nations raise such questions to pressure countries into giving them preferential treatment, according to the foreign minister of the new government.
He shared his priorities in his first days as foreign minister on bdnews24.com’s Toufique Imrose Khalidi LIVE on Monday night.
A first-time MP and a first-time minister, Momen joined his host, bdnews24.com Editor-in-Chief Khalidi, in the studio hours after attending the first cabinet meeting of the new government.
The US, the UK and other western countries have been expressing concern over Bangladesh’s human rights situation and freedom of speech.
They have questioned the fairness of the recently held parliamentary elections as well.
“The countries that want to keep you under pressure use different such tools. These include human rights, terrorism and democracy,” Momen said on being asked about the issue.
Khalidi asked whether they want to exert pressure also on Bangladesh.
“There are many advantages if they can keep (others) under pressure,” Momen replied.
“It greatly saddens me when a woman in the West and her assistant, who run an entire office, say that the killing of a barber here is related to terrorism, and our media runs it with great importance without investigating the claim,” Momen said, referring to Rita Katz.
Katz is a terrorism analyst and the co-founder of the Search International Terrorist Entities (SITE) Intelligence Group, a private intelligence firm based in Washington, DC.
Speaking about the question marks over the elections, the foreign minister remarked “model elections” are held nowhere in the world, “not even the US and the largest democracy in the world - India”.
“The elections in our country were transparent, participated by 39 parties and people with all sorts of views. I saw their (BNP’s) polling agents at all the polling stations I had visited. They bagged around 100,000 votes,” he said, brushing aside the opposition alliance’s allegation of rigging and intimidation.
“The BNP always complains because it is a party that like to make complaints. It rejected the results of the Sylhet City Corporation elections, but their candidate eventually won the vote. They say nothing about that ballot now,” Momen said.
He also dismissed concerns as “baseless” that the number of Bangladeshis in UN peacekeeping missions has dropped.
“UN takes (Bangladeshi peacekeepers) because we are professionally very competent for the job. Just see what our policewomen have shown the world. It’s not that we had begged for this (job of peacekeepers),” he said.
INDIA, CHINA AND ROHINGYA
Momen had already made it clear that India would be the destination of his first foreign tour as minister.
Besides strengthening ties with India, the Awami League government of Sheikh Hasina has taken the financial relations with China to a new level in the past 10 years.
Momen credited Hasina for the friendly relations with both India and China despite the rivalry between the two Asian giants.
“India and China are huge powers. Our relations with India are historic; we are neighbours; while China is our economic friend. The diplomacy shaped by our honourable prime minister by striking a balance between the relations with the two countries is unprecedented,” he said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Hasina to congratulate her in the morning after the landslide victory in the Dec 30 elections.
Hours later, the Chinese ambassador met Hasina to greet her with flowers and convey messages of felicitation from President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Li Keqiang.
“They brought wooden ‘boat’ (Awami League’s electoral symbol) besides flowers. Don’t you feel proud of this? There is no compromise on our warm ties,” Momen said.
“We indeed live in the midst of competition,” he said on being asked about the intense competition between India and China.
The new foreign minister does not think ties with India will come under strain if Bangladesh joins China’s ‘One Belt One Road’ initiative.
“We have emphasised economic connectivity. We always accept offers of cooperation in road, energy, aviation connectivity,” he said.
Khalidi also highlighted the Teesta river water-sharing issue, which is yet to be settled after years of efforts, and the trade deficit with India.
“It’s true Bangladesh hasn’t got Teesta water, but look at what we’ve got. We’ve got land boundary (agreement), continental shelf, a huge maritime boundary,” Momen said.
The rate of killings of Bangladeshis by Border Security Force of India and trade deficit have both dropped, according to the foreign minister.
Momen described the citizenship problem centring “illegal migrants from Bangladesh” as India’s “internal issue”.
“It may have been brought to the fore ahead of the election. We have nothing to worry about. It will not affect our ties,” he said.
The support of China, a close ally of Myanmar, is seen crucial to ending the Rohingya crisis triggered by the latest exodus of refugees which started around one and a half years ago.
Around 400,000 Rohingya Muslims had already been residing in Bangladesh after fleeing decades of persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
More than 700,000 other members of the ethnic minority group joined them in Bangladesh after Myanmar launched a military operation in the Rakhine State on Aug 25, 2017.
Bangladesh and Myanmar have signed an agreement to repatriate the Rohingyas to their homeland, but the process has yet to start.
“The Rohingya crisis is very complex and difficult for us. Despite being a friendly country, Myanmar holds the Rohingyas in very low esteem. We have made many arrangements. But these are slow,” Momen said.
“I am always an optimist. I believe we will be able to resolve the crisis,” said Momen, who had worked for a long time as Bangladesh’s permanent representative to the UN.
If the crisis lingers on, it will be a problem for all the neighbouring states in the region, Momen believes and hopes Thailand, India and others will come forward to settle it.
“There will be instability if the crisis prolongs. And instability will pose problems for all,” he added.