European Union (EU) Ambassador Charles Whiteley on Monday said the EU is now in a phase of "future-proofing” their relations with Bangladesh, signaling a premium on conserving or preserving the relationship, by engaging widely.
“This is a very important partnership. It's an indispensable relationship. And we are working on all fronts with this government (of Bangladesh) for our mutual benefit. Bangladesh is a very valued partner across many different policy areas, not just development,” he said, highlighting engagement in the areas of economy, climate change, migration and political issues.
The ambassador, during an interaction with journalists at the office of daily Amader Shomoy and The Business Post, said they no longer call themselves just a development partner.
Daily Amader Shomoy Editor Abul Momen, advisory editor Dr Khondaker Showkat Hossain also spoke at the interactive session moderated by Amader Shomoy and The Business Post Executive Editor Mainul Alam.
The ambassador visited different sections of the two dailies and exchanged views with the journalists there.
He said they are now living through very dangerous times globally and lots of terrible events happening around the world.
“And when you have terrible times, you need to hold your friends closer. And Bangladesh is a very close friend of the European Union. And we have many things in common that we want to achieve globally,” said Whiteley.
He observed that they are all facing another downturn in the European economy. “But I'm confident that that will turn around and Bangladesh is extremely competitive - you see that not only competitive in terms of price, but also competitive in the garment sector in terms of beginning to make sure all environmental social criteria are met.”
He said Bangladesh has a very strong advantage, certainly in the European market. “As you'll also know, we're quite a demanding customer, I have to be frank, we're demanding not just in terms of the buyers, but in terms of the rules that were applying to the inputs that come to the EU.”
Ambassador Whiteley described the situation in Myanmar and in Europe, they are trying to keep the flame alive for the Rohingya crisis.
“And it is still a crisis that is far from being over. I was just in Brussels in March at the European Humanitarian Forum. And there was a whole session devoted to the crisis,” he said, adding that there was a panel to discuss how they take things forward to try to be more supportive to Bangladesh.
“I think the situation in Myanmar and the instability to the whole situation, because the threat of regional instability, of course, draws attention to big powers and is interested in the future of the region,” said ambassador Whiteley.
That means, he said, a renewed attention on the need to support Bangladesh. “And certainly we will keep our funding, as I say we expect to keep funding levels, and I hope we can, because now it's been seven years or so, we need to find other sources of funding, not just crisis funding.”
The EU envoy also shed light on the progress regarding the negotiations on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA), which aims to broaden and modernize the framework for the partnership; export diversification, cooperation in education sector, ways to promote regular migration, clean energy and labour rights issues.
Bangladesh has made good use of duty - and quota- free access to the EU market under the ‘Everything But Arms’ scheme.
Beyond trade, migration, human rights, Rohingya crisis and development cooperation, Bangladesh and the European Union, today, want to step up cooperation on climate action, digitalisation, connectivity and security, taking into account the EU Strategy for cooperation in the Indo Pacific.