Rohingya, human rights and economic cooperation will be the top priorities of the foreign policy of the new administrations.

Chiefs of the different wings in the foreign office have recently put forward their priorities for the first year of the newly-formed government and the three issues are cross-cutting and one way or other applicable to core foreign policy.

“It was a brain storming session and the directors general (of the wings) shared their ideas how they want to move forward foreign relations in their respective wings,” said a senior ministry official.

The recommendations will be compiled to formulate the final policy shortly, he added.

Another official said, the issue of Rohingya crisis not only related to Southeast Asia or the UN wings, but it can be discussed in any bilateral meeting or multilateral platform.

Human rights will be a major focus when Bangladesh will engage with other countries especially with the Western countries as their foreign policy is value-driven, he said.

Bangladesh is a developing country and it needs lot of investment and trade facility to move forward, he said adding, “We will play a facilitating role.”

New foreign minister AK Abdul Momen, State Minister Md Shahriar Alam and Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque and their team will execute the plan.

South Asia

Bangladesh always maintains a strong neighbourhood policy where India has the major focus.

“We have agreements and other deals in almost all areas with India and our top priority will be executing them expeditiously,” said an official.

We will focus on maintaining strong relations with other countries in the neighbourhood, he said adding, “Incoming and outgoing VVIP visit will be another top priority of the wing.

Top political leadership of South Asian countries has already congratulated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

East Asia

Under East Asia, there are four major countries and those are China, Japan, South Korea and Australia.

“All are important in our bilateral relationship in which economic cooperation dominates,” said another official.

The countries have huge investment in Bangladesh and engaged in different projects which are very important for the country, he said.

We have to identify the challenges and address those to expeditiously implement the projects, he added.

Incoming and outgoing VVIP visit will be another priority area, the official said.

Europe

The foreign policy of European countries is value-driven and that’s why there would be more discussion on human right issue with them.

“We will engage with European Union and other European countries on human right issue,” said an official.

Every country is sovereign and has its own views about a particular issue, he said.

“We are open to hearing from them and ready to respond,” he said adding, “But, it should be based on mutual respect, trust and in confidence.”

Labour and knowledge transfer will other two major priorities from the countries from the European Union, he said.

Russia and Turkey are the two other countries which are not members of the West Europe and the government has separate policies for them.

Russia, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Belarus are the members of Eurasian Economic Union and Bangladesh wants to sign an agreement with the Union to get trade benefit from the blocs, said another official.

Americas

The United States, Canada, Mexico and countries in South America is under the Americas wing where Washington gets the maximum attention.

Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque will have political consultation with his State Department counterpart David Hale on Jan 22 and discuss about election, human rights, Rohingyas, economic and defence cooperation, counter-terrorism and Indo-Pacific Strategy, said an official.

Washington has huge investment in energy sector and we want to diversify it, he said.

We have robust counter-terrorism cooperation and it will continue in the coming days, he added.

“The US always support Bangladesh on Rohingya issue and we expect that it will continue in the coming days,” the official said.

South East Asia

In recent times, it is the most vibrant wing of the foreign ministry as Myanmar is under the department. Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, Vietnam, Brunei and other Southeast Asian countries are also under the wing.

Engagement with Myanmar will be a major focus of the wing, said an official.

In addition to this over-arching issue, investment and streamlining labour market will be other two major focus of the wing, he said.

We are now negotiating with Singapore to invest in Bangladesh and we also offer them exclusive zone, he said.

Brunei is also interested to invest in agri sector and they can do it with private sector, he added.

There are many Bangladeshis working in Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore and other countries in the region and we want streamline the whole process, the official said.

West Asia

Most of the Bangladeshi expatriates live in the Middle East countries and labour market streamline will the major focus of the West Asia wing.

We also want investment from Gulf countries including from Saudi Arabia, said an official.

“The negotiation is going on and we expect a visible progress in the coming days,” he added.

Bangladesh wants to have regular political dialogue with the Gulf countries and for that we need foreign office consultation (FOC) at the foreign secretary level, he said.

“We are planning to hold FOC with the countries as soon as possible,” he added.

United Nations

Rohingya will dominate the UN wing operations for the next couple of years as the global body has already agreed to establish a mechanism to investigate atrocities inside Rakhine and other areas in Myanmar.

“It is true Rohingya can be discussed in any bilateral negotiation but for UN, it has legal implication,” said an official.

Human rights will be another area where the wing will work closely, he added.

We had Universal Periodic Review last year when the member countries put forward a number of recommendations and we accepted 169 of them, he added.

“We will review the implementations of 169 recommendations this year,” he said.

Execution of UN Security Council resolution will be another major area where the UN wing will work, he added.