Last updated: August 11, 2024 22:45 IST
The foreign affairs adviser also said the security situation would improve significantly within a week. (File photo)
Asked about the caretaker government’s stance towards India, Foreign Affairs Advisor Mohammed Touhid Hossain said the two countries share strong and deep ties.
Bangladesh’s newly formed caretaker government said Sunday it would maintain a “balanced” foreign policy and asserted it intended to maintain “smooth and positive” relations with all countries, including India and China.
“Our policy is to maintain good relations with all countries while protecting our national interests,” Mohammed Tuhid Hossain, foreign affairs adviser to the caretaker government, said at his first press conference at the foreign ministry.
Hossain, who holds the equivalent of a minister, said it was pointless to assume the caretaker government would focus only on one particular direction.
“We intend to maintain smooth and positive relations with all countries, including India and China,” said Hossain, who was once India’s deputy high commissioner.
Asked about the caretaker government’s stance towards India, Hossain said the two countries share strong and deep ties.
“(But) it is important that the people feel that India is a good friend of Bangladesh… We want that and we want relations (between Dhaka and Delhi) to move forward in that direction,” said Hossain, a former foreign minister and career diplomat.
He said the interim government “hopes that India will cooperate with us in this regard,” and stressed the need to “meet the expectations of our people by delivering concrete results from our bilateral relations with India.”
It was Hossain’s first remarks to the media since a caretaker government was sworn in on Thursday after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled to India following widespread protests against her government over employment quotas.
Hossain said the caretaker government was committed to holding fair and impartial elections, which he said was its “main objective.”
“There is no need for speculation at this point,” he said, without commenting on the interim government’s term.
“Their concerns are our concerns,” Hossain said, calling for international partners’ support for the interim government, which he said was committed to bringing to justice perpetrators of violence, including attacks on ethnic minorities, since the ouster of the Awami League government.
He said Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus would soon meet with representatives of ethnic minority communities.
He hopes that the security situation will improve significantly within a week.
Asked about the possibility of Hasina being brought home, he said the matter came under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Law and Politics and that the Prime Minister’s Office would act only if the ministry requested it.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed (PTI)
