Staff Reporter:
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir yesterday described Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s participation in the COP31 World Leaders’ Summit in Turkiye as highly successful, saying the visit elevated Bangladesh’s international standing and strengthened bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
“Taking everything into consideration, Bangladesh’s participation in COP31 under the Honorable Prime Minister’s leadership was highly successful,” he told a media briefing at the foreign ministry here on the Prime Minister’s November 11-12 visit to Antalya.
Humaiun Kobir said the visit provided an important opportunity to present the new government’s commitments, priorities and vision to the international community while expanding Bangladesh’s diplomatic engagement with key international partners.
“Through this visit, the Prime Minister-elected through the direct votes of the people after a long interval-has taken Bangladesh’s confidence, honour and self-respect to a new height on the world stage,” he said.
The State Minister said the Prime Minister attended the World Leaders’ Summit of the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the invitation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
He said Bangladesh’s participation was particularly significant as the country contributes less than 0.5 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions but remains among the nations’ most vulnerable to climate change.
Delivering Bangladesh’s national statement at the COP31 plenary, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman highlighted climate justice, the historical responsibilities of developed countries, adaptation financing, loss and damage, and climate-resilient development.
The Prime Minister proposed allocating 50 percent of climate finance to adaptation and called for greater international cooperation to address climate-related loss and damage.
He also emphasized grant-based climate financing, technology transfer, a just energy transition and reforms to debt arrangements to support climate-vulnerable developing countries.
The Prime Minister held bilateral meetings with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, Chinese Vice-President Han Zheng, the British Foreign Secretary and the President of Uzbekistan on the sidelines of the summit, he said.
Kobir expressed hope that the ongoing COP31 negotiations would produce positive decisions and agreements, although the conference’s final outcome document had yet to be adopted.
Foreign Secretary Salahuddin Noman Chowdhury was present, among others at the briefing.
