Staff Reporter :
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen called the border killings sad for Bangladesh and shameful for India.
He said Bangladesh and India have at several stages agreed that there will be no killings at the India-Bangladesh border but still it continues to happen.
“I have nothing to say,” he said at a press conference on the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Council of Ministers’ Meeting beginning today (Monday) in Dhaka.
His comments came as a journalist asked him if the Bangladesh government would take any measures to prevent border killings.
Indian side maintains that BSF shoots only for saving lives as the last resort. Twelve ministers of different countries and representatives of 23 countries will attend the event of IORA Council of Ministers’ Meeting.
The first two days of the event will be at senior officers’ level and the third day will have ministerial level meeting.
The meeting will discuss the ways of best utilizing the Indian Ocean resources that have largely remained untapped.
“Bangladesh will state its position that we want free, open, inclusive and international rules-based Indo-Pacific. We don’t want unilateral dominance of any country or group,” Momen said.
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and Marine Affairs Unit Secretary Rear Admiral Khurshed Alam also spoke at the event.
IORA was established in 1997. IORA’s apex body is the Council of Foreign Ministers (COM) which meets annually. A Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) meets twice a year to progress IORA’s agenda and consider recommendations by Working Groups and other forums.
The Secretariat of IORA is located in Mauritius. IORA has six Priority and two Focus Areas namely Maritime Safety and Security, Fisheries Management, Trade and Investment Facilitation, Disaster Risk Management, Tourism & Cultural Exchanges, Academic, Science and Technological Cooperation, Blue Economy and Women’s Economic Empowerment.
Since the establishment of IORA, Bangladesh is first time elected as Chair for the period 2021-2023.
