Iftekhar mum about accord on giving corridor to India
Moinuddin Naser in New York
Replying to a question regarding the report about agreement on
providing corridor to India for movement of soldiers to the eastern
provinces of India, Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury said that he did not
see the news, but at the same time he did not deny the report and
avoided the question.
The present government has opened a new gateway to the world
through Myanmar as an alternative to India and helped Myanmar to build
roads inside that country, said Iftekhar Chowdhury at a hurriedly
called press conference in New York. He said it was important for
Bangladesh to have a second gateway, while we are developing relation
with India.
He said that Bangladesh is an oasis of stability in the whole
region under the present government. He said that during the last 14
months there was no sound of bomb in Bangladesh. He said that to
maintain the stability the country must have national consensus on
different issues. He said that "we could post the national growth at 6
per cent from now, and the country's situation will be different in 15
to 20 years.
Foreign Affairs Adviser Dr Chowdhury, who has reportedly played a
vital role in obtaining support of the UN for the present Caretaker
Government in Bangladesh, has again said that he had discussed about
the situation including the trial of the war criminals with the UN
Secretary General Bun Ki Moon when he called on him on April 1 during
his recent visit to the UN.
However he avoided saying anything when asked whether he supports
the trial of war criminals to be initiated by the present government,
but said that the Chief Adviser, while speaking about the issue in
London did not disagree with it but said, "one has to fix the
priorities of the issues. Time is a big factor and the government is
committed to hold national election before December 2008, he added.
Chowdhury said that after 21 years relation with Russia is being
improved as Bangladesh has undertaken special initiatives to normalise
relations with China, Japan and United Kingdom. He said that the
labour market of Eastern Europe is also being explored.
He said that now 1.7 million Bangladeshis are working in Saudi
Arabia while the total number of Bangladeshi expatriates is 5 million.
He said that the relation between Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh was very
good and it has to remain good. He said that last year the total
remittance was the highest and it was about 7 billion dollars and the
government was ready to do whatever is possible for the expatriates.
Chowdhury said that the issue of enlisting the expatriates as
voters is also under active consideration of the government. Last year
he said a total of 832,000 Bangladeshis were sent abroad and it was a
record.
Replying to a question posed by this correspondent Ifthekhar
Chowdhury said that no other country than India was found to sell rice
at a reasonably low price. He said that with the arrival of five
hundred thousand tons of rice from India the total stock of rice will
be 9 81,000 and if the Boro Cultivation goes well it will add at least
200,000 tons and as such the total stockpile will not be less then 1.1
million tons and that will help solve the crisis.
He said that he had discussed the matter related to election
schedule, peace keeping and other issues related to human rights and
women development.
http://www.weeklyholiday.net/front.html#03
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