Neighbours’ support over Rohingya crisis remains minimal: foreign adviser

Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain today said Bangladesh has not received the expected level of support from its major neighbouring countries regarding resolving the Rohingya crisis.
“During the last eight years, the amount of or the level of support that we expected from our neighbours, big neighbours, has not been forthcoming,” Touhid said while speaking at the opening ceremony of the Bay of Bengal Conversation at a hotel in Dhaka.
Explaining the geopolitical complexities, Touhid said, “The question comes, why China has not forthcoming in resolving the issue on the side of Bangladesh? Because Myanmar remains very important for its (China) access to the Bay of Bengal. Similarly, India thinks that the Kaladan project is important, and for this project, it has to keep good relations with Myanmar.”
The Kaladan Road Project connects Kolkata in eastern India with Sittwe seaport in Rakhine State, Myanmar, via sea.
Touhid further said Bangladesh has been caught in the crosshairs of competing geopolitical interests.
“I am not blaming anyone, everyone looks after their own interest. But that doesn’t seem to tag with our interest on the Rohingya issue and for which the issue has been lingering, and there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
“I don’t see that this is going to be resolved very quickly and very easily. But one thing I just want to mention here is that unless this issue is resolved, it is going to become an issue for the rest of the world,” he said.
Highlighting the growing concerns over the future of the Rohingya youth, the adviser said, “Young generations who have no hopes for the future are not likely to sit idle and watch what others do. There will be a point in time they will become a serious problem not only for Bangladesh but also for our neighbours and people from far away.”
The programme has been organised by the Centre for Governance Studies at a hotel in Dhaka.
Since the 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar, widely condemned as ethnic cleansing by the UN, approximately 1.2 million Rohingya refugees have taken shelter in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar camps.