MESSAGE FROM AMBASSADOR TAREQ MD ARIFUL ISLAM
COLOMBO : Global multilateral discourse is undergoing a profound transformation due to the evolving geo-political realities and emergence of new technologies; and accordingly, its catchment has widened beyond comprehension, both vertically and horizontally. The challenges of our time such as climate change, forced displacement, conflict, ultra-nationalism, terrorism, inequality, cyber-attacks, health issues transcend borders; they are a horrific reminder that none is immune and our destinies are shared. They are raising worldwide concern about the wane of multilateralism.
For an emerging economy like Bangladesh, multilateral diplomacy constitutes a very important part of foreign policy. Multilateral diplomacy creates huge opportunities on one hand while on the other, it poses enormous challenges. Skillfully navigating the intricate world of multilateral diplomacy is therefore, critical for Bangladesh as it is for any other developing country.
The principles that our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had put forth in various multilateral forums including the United Nations (UN) and the guidelines that our Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have provided us, remain as the fundamentals of Bangladesh’s multilateral engagements. Accordingly, Bangladesh believes in a rules-based global order and always looks up at multilateralism as the bastion of inspiration and support. Bangladesh’s approach towards multilateral diplomacy is essentially value-based, geared towards creating a niche for Bangladesh in global norm setting exercises. At the same time, Bangladesh also strives to work for securing the interest of developing nations.
And it’s not only conviction; Bangladesh is making contribution to multilateralism in its own humble way. Bangladesh features in almost all UN discourses and norm setting exercises on global issues be it development, human rights or peace and security related. We are leveraging the issues of LDC graduation and climate change to underpin the global development agenda. Sheltering 1.2 million Rohingyas, we have resorted to the custodianship of UN alongside our bilateral efforts. All these reflect our abiding commitment to and trust in multilateralism. In this piece, I would try to capture in brief Bangladesh’s thematic and sectoral engagements and involvements in multilateral diplomacy.
Securing graduation from the least developed country category: Having fulfilled all three criteria for graduation, as per the recommendation of the UN Bangladesh has graduated to a developing country status despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a huge achievement, also a global endorsement to Bangladesh’s sustainable development trajectory. Looking ahead, Bangladesh is strongly pursuing the issue of securing support from the international community for the graduating countries to ensure a smooth transition. On Bangladesh’s initiative, the UN has agreed to offer additional cushion for the graduating countries to withstand the unforeseen impact of the global pandemic.
United Nations Peace Operations: As a peace-loving nation, Bangladesh has taken it upon itself a larger responsibility to contribute to global peace and security through UN Peace Operations (UN Peacekeeping). Bangladesh’s commitment to peacekeeping is total. Bangladesh is proud to have served under the blue helmets for more than three decades now and today, we stand as the country that sends the highest number of peacekeepers. Undaunted by fatalities and the pandemic, our peacekeepers are putting their lives on the line to secure and sustain peace in conflict ravaged countries. To cope up with the evolving realities and contemporary challenges, UN peace operations have to be rooted into pragmatism and tenability of expectation. To that end, Bangladesh is working with other countries to bring adjustments in some critical areas of peace operations. Bangladesh is also advocating for introducing robust contingency planning and preparedness in peace operations mandates to ensure safety and security of our peacekeepers in particular during the Covid-19 pandemic and future health emergencies.
Calibrating multilateral response to the Covid-19 pandemic: Following the outbreak of the pandemic, Bangladesh has been actively contributing to the global multilateral discourses that ensued. We have been pushing for embedding pandemic and health emergency preparedness in multilateral frameworks to overcome such future shocks. Bangladesh has also been asking for greater international support measures for revamping domestic health infrastructure. Bangladesh has been an early proponent for securing global commitment to treat Covid-19 vaccine as a ‘global public good’ and making it available affordably and timely to all, particularly the global South.
Contribution to UN development discourse: Increasing protectionism, rigidity in delivering on commitments and reluctance in engaging on development issues have made the realization of the 2030 Agenda difficult. Financing is the biggest challenge in achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). At the UN, Bangladesh remains as an advocate from the global south for addressing this bleak scenario and continues to pursue the Means of Implementation of the SDGs including ODA (official development assistance), trade, FDI (foreign direct investment) and technology transfer.
Climate change: Bangladesh has been a strong, consistent voice from the developing world in addressing the challenges of climate change. The pandemic is exacerbating the pre-existing vulnerabilities of climate vulnerable countries. Therefore, Covid-19 recovery measures should complement climate actions to create stronger resilience against any future shock or calamity. As the current President of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, Bangladesh is leading the Forum to map out a sustainable and climate resilient pathway out of the crisis.
South-South Cooperation: Bangladesh attaches high importance to South-South Cooperation (SSC) as an effective multilateral mechanism for development cooperation among countries in the South. We actively pursue some pertinent issues namely, duty-free-quota-free access of our products to the southern countries, technology transfer, robust cooperation in frontier technologies, accelerated cooperation in climate actions, promotion of private sector. Bangladesh’s collaboration with UN Office for SSC in sharing our developmental best practices such as in innovative public service delivery, a2i (access to information) has drawn significant interest among the countries in the South.
Norm-setting for Cyber governance: The world is in increasing risk of terrorists’ use of dark web and Artificial Intelligence aided technologies and cyber-attacks against critical infrastructures. Digital dependence during the pandemic has added to the vulnerability. In this grim backdrop, Bangladesh is supporting UN’s ongoing normative efforts for putting in place a cyber governance for attaining a secure cyber space.
Contribution to multilateral Water Agenda: Water agenda enjoys profound attention at multilateral forums since it has serious implications for many developing countries. In recognition of our national achievements and our deep involvement in the water related issues particularly in the implementation of the SDG 6, Bangladesh continues to be a strong voice to keep the issue of water at the forefront of multilateral discourses.
Election successes at multilateral bodies: Bangladesh’s recent major election successes came in the form of membership of various prestigious UN bodies and entities namely: Human Rights Council (for the term 2019-2021); Commission on Status of Women (2019-2023); and Executive Boards of UNICEF (2019-2021) and UNWOMEN (2019-2021). Bangladesh was the immediate past President of UNICEF and current Vice President of UNDP representing the Asia-Pacific Group. All these are reflections of international community’s confidence on Bangladesh as a responsible member in the comity of nations.
Promoting a Culture of Peace: Bangladesh is the original proponent of the notion of ‘Culture of Peace’ at the UN. In fact, Bangladesh and the notion of Culture of Peace have become synonymous. Even though 20 years have elapsed, the appeal of the notion has not diminished. It has rather become kind of all embracing. It is finding stronger and more frequent mention in various UN processes and discourses and has in fact turned into one of the dominant UN themes.
Contribution to migration discourse: Bangladesh is a major proponents of migration and human mobility. Bangladesh conceptualized and coined the ‘Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration’ (popularly known as the Global Migration Compact, GCM), the first truly global platform on migration. Bangladesh was also an important player in the negotiation of the GCM to uphold the human rights of migrants and migration governance. During Covid-19 pandemic, many of Bangladesh’s expatriate workers were sent back from abroad. The same plight befell many migrants sending countries. Bangladesh took the lead at the UN to secure international support for ensuring the rights and welfare of such migrant workers, their rehabilitation and reintegration in the society and their re-employment in the host countries.
Leadership on autism issue: Bangladesh continues to be recognized at UN as a leader on autism. This is attributed not only to our national achievements in this sector but also to the global leadership that Ms. Saima Wazed Hossain, Chairperson of National Advisory Committee on Autism and Neuro-developmental Disorders and WHO’s Goodwill Ambassador for Autism in the South East Asia Region, provided in this regard.
Promotion of multilingualism: Bangladesh has been promoting multilingualism through celebration of the International Mother Language Day (IMLD) at the UN.
Facilitating the work of International Seabed Authority (ISA): The ISA is in final phase of completing the regulatory process for deep sea mining which is expected to lead to a ‘mining code’. Such a code would regulate prospecting, exploration and exploitation of marine minerals in the international seabed area with effective protection of marine environment. These are expected to create normatic and legal frameworks for marine exploration from which developing countries would benefit the most. In view of the enormous potential marine exploration holds for developing countries including Bangladesh, we remain deeply engaged with the proceedings of the ISA and pursue for sharing of scientific knowledge and capacity building of developing countries.
Involvement in the BBNJ process: Marine genetic resources (MGR) in the areas beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) have huge potentials in developing various new generation products, lifesaving drugs, cosmetics and enzymes. A global norm setting exercise has been initiated at the UN for conservation and sustainable use of MGRs. Bangladesh actively participates in the process in national capacity and also represents the LDC group with a view to securing the interest of Bangladesh primarily and developing countries in general.
Promoting the notion of sustaining peace: The notion of ‘sustaining peace’ is getting wide traction as a critical enabler of international peace and security. Bangladesh has been facilitating the notion as a dominant theme to develop the inter-linkages between peacebuilding and sustaining peace.
Counter-terrorism: In view of Bangladesh’s own experiences of terrorist incidents, we have been proactively involved in the UN discourses and norm setting initiatives on counter-terrorism and preventing violent extremism particularly for domestic counter-terrorism capacity building of developing countries.
Conclusion: Bangladesh and Sri Lanka hold similar positions on a number of contemporary, global issues like poverty alleviation, women empowerment, climate change, disaster management, migration, health, peacekeeping, human trafficking etc. at the UN and other regional and international platforms. We need to harness this synergy more and help each other in a bigger way in pursuit of our common and mutual interests.
