Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Khalilur Rahman on Tuesday said Bangladesh has taken a series of diplomatic and policy initiatives to revitalise regional organisations such as South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation(SAARC) and Developing-8 Organization for Economic Cooperation which have seen limited progress in recent years.
SAARC remains a landmark initiative in South Asia widely associated with the vision of late president Ziaur Rahman, he said responding to a question from NCP lawmaker elected from Kurigram-2 Atiqur Rahman Mujahid in Parliament.
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He recalled that Ziaur Rahman played a pioneering role in conceptualising regional cooperation by engaging South Asian leaders through diplomatic correspondence and special envoys. This effort eventually led to the formal launch of SAARC at its first summit held in Dhaka in 1985.
The Minister said SAARC was founded with the objective of promoting socio-economic development, strengthening mutual cooperation and ensuring regional stability among member states.
However, he acknowledged that the organisation has not been functioning at the desired pace.
“According to the SAARC Charter, summits are supposed to be held regularly, but no summit has taken place since 2014,” he said, adding that although some activities continue at the secretariat and focal point levels overall political and institutional progress remains limited.
The current government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, has already incorporated specific measures in its 180-day action plan to reactivate the regional body, he said.
As part of these efforts, Bangladesh is engaging with member states at various levels including holding high-level meetings and expanding cooperation in areas such as culture, trade, investment, sports, media and women’s entrepreneurship, he added.
“I have personally conveyed Bangladesh’s strong interest in revitalising SAARC during my meetings with ministers and high-level representatives of member countries,” Dr. Rahman said.
He emphasised that renewed mutual trust, regional dialogue and collective political will are essential to restore SAARC’s dynamism. “Bangladesh will continue to play a proactive, constructive and forward-looking diplomatic role in this regard,” he added.
Besides, Bangladesh is actively participating in discussions on signing a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) among D-8 member states to enhance economic cooperation.
He also mentioned ongoing efforts to finalise a visa waiver agreement for holders of official and diplomatic passports as well as recognised business representatives from member countries.
To strengthen food security, Bangladesh has developed and shared a concept paper titled “Cooperation Framework for Food Security in the D-8: Leveraging Contract Farming as a Business Model” with other member states.
The proposals are expected to be discussed at the upcoming 12th D-8 Summit to be held in Indonesia, once the situation in the Middle East stabilises.
He expressed hope that Bangladesh’s active participation in the summit would contribute positively to administrative and financial reforms within the organisation.