Bangladesh
Bangladesh’s BRICS exclusion due to lack of multilateral diplomacy, says ambassador Humayun Kabir
ByShoumik Hassin
Published:27th Aug, 2023 at 11:38 PM
Bangladesh’s exclusion from the list of six new members of BRICS – the bloc composed of developing countries that hopes to represent the Global South – was not a shock, but rather the result of inadequate efforts at multilateral diplomacy, says career diplomat M Humayun Kabir
“I'm not surprised,” he told bdnews24.com’s ‘Inside Out’. “But I had hoped based on the assurance or you can say positive soundings made by the Bangladesh foreign minister a few months back.”
“I'm not surprised because the countries that have come on board, you can see, all of them have a higher profile at the multilateral level than Bangladesh.”
The full video of the interview is available on bdnews24.com and its Facebook and YouTube pages.
When asked about why Ethiopia was added to the bloc despite its seemingly limited impact on global politics, he said: “We have to understand that the focus of this year's BRICS summit was building a partnership between BRICS and Africa, for multilateralism, inclusive multilateralism, and other kinds of partnership.”
“And since it was focused on Africa... you can see they have taken in Egypt, which is the second largest economy in Africa. It will be a gain by dint of its being the centre of attraction or centre of diplomatic activity in Africa, because AU, the African Union headquarters is based in Addis Ababa.”
“So when we just focused on Africa, African solidarity somehow came into play. And that's why we are seeing the two members have been taken in from Africa.”
Asked where Bangladesh had gone wrong in its approach, Humayun said: “Well, there are a lot of things. For example, one thing is that this is not a bilateral issue. This is an entire effort to enter into a multilateral process, and the multilateral process is quite intense.”
“I think that while Bangladesh was aspiring to become a member of BRICS, it was a political choice or political decision. But any political decision of such magnitude has to be supported by intense or serious diplomatic negotiation or engagement with the potential members, or the five members, who are the present members of BRICS.”
There were other important players who could have been contacted to gain an advantage, but the former Bangladeshi ambassador to the US said it was not clear if the legwork had been done.
Another issue was international sanctions, he said.
“It also came out in the media that some members also proposed that the country should not run the risk of being identified or put under any kind of sanction,” he said.
Asked why Iran, which has faced many sanctions, was admitted to the grouping, the diplomat said that Iran is an oil-rich country with significant regional power and that played a role in bolstering its support.
The long-time diplomat said that it was important for Bangladesh to work concertedly on its most crucial foreign policy goals, which include the eradication of internal poverty.
“It's well understood that we are still struggling to overcome the burden of poverty. So that remains the major task for us.”
“So we have to work with our friends, international partners, development partners, to lift this category of people who are below the poverty line. So that's number one. Number two is, we are going into a situation in 2026.
Graduation means a lot of facilities that we used to get will go away. So, it means that we'll have to navigate in an uncertain environment.”
“I think it is time that, from now, on we should prepare for it and build up our capacity to navigate in that kind of competitive environment with higher productivity. And for that, I think we have to do a lot of reforms - the education system needs to be updated or upgraded, or the skill set needs to be upgraded.
Our institutional framework that is there needs to be modernised, our bureaucracy needs to be focused, our business community needs to be made more responsible.”
Humayun said he believed economic diplomacy would be the focus and maintaining economic momentum the top foreign policy priority of the Bangladesh government.
The country should also enhance its profile by continuing to work on peacekeeping efforts alongside the UN, and on multilateral arrangements with many international agencies.
Another major concern is the continuing Rohingya crisis, Humayun said.
“One load that we have is the Rohingya issue. That's the problem, as it affects regional security and it is now becoming a domestic security issue for us. So we should intensify our diplomacy or intensify our diplomatic efforts to resolve this issue as quickly as possible.”
When his attention was drawn to the dwindling of international support for the Rohingya, he cited the war in Ukraine.
“Now, refugee crises are breaking out in other parts of the world, for example, the Ukrainian war has created a lot of refugees, and it's in Europe. So obviously, that is distracting or taking away some of the attention from the Rohingya issue.”
Bangladesh is only hosting the 1.1 refugees for the time being, but the international community must work on ensuring a peaceful, safe, and sustainable repatriation process through which they can return home to Myanmar with dignity as soon as possible, he said.
The BRICS bloc, which previously accounted for a quarter of the world economy, has now expanded with the addition of six new members. But Bangladesh, which w...
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