Staff Reporter:
Acknowledging the prevailing difficulties, Bangladesh has strongly told the United States that peace will not return to Myanmar even if the war ends unless the Rohingya issue is resolved.
“If the Rohingya problem remains unresolved, peace will not come to Myanmar. I conveyed the message to the US delegation,” Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain told reporters on Friday, sharing the outcomes of the meeting held with the US delegation on Thursday.
Bangladesh is currently hosting over 1.2 million Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char Island.
While addressing a press conference at the Foreign Service Academy, Hossain said, “We are failing to deal with them directly and to ignore them on strategic grounds. This is a really difficult situation for us.”
He said that the Rohingya people need to be considered on humanitarian grounds and their rights need to be restored in Myanmar.
The US delegation, including Nicole Ann Chulick, deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, and Andrew R. Herrup, deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, held meetings separately with Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain, National Security Adviser and Chief Adviser’s High Representative Khalilur Rahman and Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin to discuss issues of mutual interest.
Nicole Chulick highlighted bilateral issues while Andrew Herrup’s focus was on Myanmar issues, Hossain said.
Bangladesh sought greater political and humanitarian support from the United States to help address the Rohingya crisis.
Both sides expressed a strong commitment to further advancing the Bangladesh-US partnership to a newer height in the days to come.
