Beijing is going to take another initiative to hold a ‘tripartite talk’ among Bangladesh, China and Myanmar over the Rohingya refugee issue.
Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi in a telephonic conversation told his Bangladesh counterpart Dr. AK Abdul Momen that they would take the step after Myanmar’s general elections next month, the foreign ministry said on Friday.
The phone conversation took place on Thursday evening.
The Chinese foreign minister suggested holding an ambassador level talk first before arranging the foreign ministers’ level meeting over Rohingya repatriation.
This would be the second such initiative by China. The first such tripartite meeting among the foreign ministers was held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last year.
The Chinese foreign minister conveyed to Dr Momen that Myanmar recently reassured Beijing of taking back the forcibly displaced Rohingyas from Bangladesh once the Covid-19 situation improves.
Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar district with most of them arriving following the August 25, 2017 ‘ethnic cleansing’ by the Myanmar’s military.
On Thursday the international community sat together in a virtual donor conference to review humanitarian support for Rohingyas and host communities.
The US, UK, EU, and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) co-hosted the conference with Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Brunei, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Pakistan, the Philippines, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Vietnam.
During the conference, State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam while representing Bangladesh reminded the international community that Rohingyas took refuge here on a temporary basis and they must return to their country of origin soon.
He also said that the “role of the United Nations in saving humanity from hell is also not visible in its policy actions towards Myanmar”.
