Dhaka, Beijing agree on speedy Rohingya solution

Dhaka and Beijing on Friday agreed on speedy solution to the protracted Rohingya crisis as Chinese president Xi Jinping and Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina held talks in Beijing.

‘The two leaders have agreed on solving the Rohingya problem fast and said it cannot be kept unresolved,’ foreign secretary Md Shahidul Haque told reporters after the meeting held at Diaoyuati State Guest House here this evening.

The foreign secretary said the Chinese president and the Bangladesh prime minister added that two years have passed after the signing of agreements to this effect.

‘There is no disagreement among us on how the problem will be solved … the Rohingyas must go back to their homeland,’ the foreign secretary quoted the two leaders as saying.

Haque said the two leaders mentioned that the representatives of the two countries will work together in this regard and they will pursue ‘good will’ to prevail on Myanmar for the repatriation of the Rohingyas.

Bangladesh ambassador to China M Fazlul Karim and PM’s speech writer M Nazrul Islam were present at the press briefing.

The prime minister said Bangladesh is now hosting 1.1 million Rohingyas which is a big challenge for the country environmentally and from the security aspect.

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh seeks ‘good will’ from the Chinese government so that the Rohingyas can return to their motherland.

In reply, the Chinese president said they previously worked with both Bangladesh and Myanmar for solving the Rohingya crisis and will continue to do so.

‘We want the Rohingyas to go back,’ the foreign secretary quoted the Chinese president as saying.

Jinping said the Myanmar minister who works on the Rohingya issue may visit Bangladesh again and it is expected that it will create another possibility for solving the problem.

The foreign secretary said the prime minister apprised the Chinese president of the problem and this discussion also came up at the banquet.

Haque said as some questions were raised by the Chinese president, the prime minister highlighted various aspects of the Rohingya crisis.

Sheikh Hasina said the Rohingyas do not want to go back to their homeland as they have a fear that they may be persecuted again.

In this connection, the prime minister requested the Chinese president to use their ‘good will’.

Jinping said as this is happening not beyond the international attention, the possibility of its repetition is very less.

‘We will try as much as possible to solve the problem … before us both Bangladesh and China are close friends and they are our equal friends, none is more or less,’ he said.

The Chinese president assured that as Bangladesh and Myanmar are developing countries they will see the interests of the two countries.

Earlier, China’s ruling party assured prime minister Sheikh Hasina of pursuing Myanmar to resolve the Rohingya crisis, a day after Chinese premier Li Keqiang pledged to extend Beijing’s support for repatriating the forcibly displaced Myanmar people.

‘We’ll contact with the Myanmar political leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, to solve the Rohingya problem amicably,’ Communist Party of China’s minister for international affairs Song Tao told the Bangladesh premier calling on her Friday afternoon.

During the meeting at Diaoyuati state guest house in Beijing, Song Tao said the CPC would pursue Myanmar leaders to take back the first batch of Rohingyas in the soonest possible time to mark the launching of the repatriation process.

The CPC assurance came a day after Li Keqiang acknowledged the issue to be a major crisis, saying ‘there is no doubt that it’s a big problem for Bangladesh’ which should be resolved fast.

‘Both Bangladesh and Myanmar are friends of China . . . we previously helped the two countries solve the Rohingya problem and we’ll continue our efforts,’ the Chinese prime minister told his Bangladesh counterpart at the yesterday’s meeting.

Sheikh Hasina is now in China on a five-day official visit to join the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting and hold meetings with the top Chinese leaders.

Bangladesh premier’s speech writer Md Nazrul Islam briefed reporters after her meeting with the CPC minister saying, Song Tao assured that China will continue support to Bangladesh’s development strides as well while he highly appreciating Bangladesh’s tremendous development under her leadership.

‘A very friendly relation now prevails between the two countries and we’ll continue support for Bangladesh’s development endeavours,’ Song Tao said.

The CPC leader mentioned that Bangladesh attained very high GDP growth, which he said was ‘rare in the world’.

Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh attained 8.1 percent GDP growth in the last fiscal and set a target of achieving 8.2 percent growth in the current fiscal.

Song Tao expressed his hope that relations between the CPC and Bangladesh Awami League would be further deepened and expected the Bangladesh’s ruling party to send its leaders of different strata to China to make closer the ties between the two parties.

He said a CPC delegation was expected to visit Bangladesh in the near future as well.

Sheikh Hasina described Chine to be a major development partner while a deep relation exists between Bangladesh Awami League and the CPC.

She recalled her first visit to China in 1993 as the leader of the opposition, saying that visit laid the foundation of ties between the CPC and Awami League.

‘We’ll always try so that the good relations continue,’ Sheikh Hasina said.

She said both Bangladesh and China have an identical goal of poverty alleviation and fulfilling the basic needs of people while ‘our government is working untiringly to achieve the goal’.

Sheikh Hasina also remembered the Bangladesh’s Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s China visit in 1952 and 1957.

She said after those visits, Bangabandhu narrated his experiences to her and predicted that a ‘new China’ is going to be emerged.

‘I’m now seeing that China which Bangabandhu had predicted,’ she said.

Sheikh Hasina said she was currently editing a book named ‘New China’ from Bangabandhu’s diary which was expected to be published soon.

The CPC leader expressed interest to translate the book into Chinese language to be distributed among the Chinese people.

The prime minister extended her heartiest congratulations to the Chinese people and the CPC on the occasion of the 70th founding anniversary of the People’s Republic of China.

Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen, PM’s private investment and industry affairs adviser Salman F Rahman, state minister for foreign affairs Md Shahriar Alam, chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry of foreign affairs Muhammad Faruk Khan accompanied the premier during the meeting.

Foreign secretary Md Shahidul Haque and Bangladesh ambassador to China M Fazlul Karim were present on the occasion, among others.

Later, prime minister Sheikh Hasina paid rich tributes to the heroes of Chinese revolution by placing a wreath at the Heroes Memorial in Tian’anmen Square in Beijing this afternoon.

After laying the wreath at 4:00pm local time, the prime minister stood in solemn silence for some time as a mark of profound respect to the memory of the Chinese revolutionary heroes.

On her arrival, a smartly turned out contingent of China Armed Forces gave the state salute.

The national anthems of the two countries were played on the occasion, while bugle played the last post.

Later, the prime minister held a meeting with Chinese National People’s Congress chairman Li Zhangshu at the Great Hall of the People.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net