Dhaka Dec 18 - Foreign Affairs Adviser Dr Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury Tuesday called for national consensus on foreign policy as he set 10-point principled aims to achieve economic development and security.
"To surmount the twin challenges of security and development, we require an international order that is peaceful and stable," he said making a statement at the Foreign Policy Dialogue at the ministry.
The Adviser also sought a world order where the rule of law is ensured, where development is shared aspiration of the developing and developed world, where the environment and the human rights are protected and where the strong does not aggress against the weak.
"Such a world is not what exists in reality, and a country like Bangladesh needs to operate in the face of myriad adversities to advance towards the two-fold aspirations --security and development," he said, adding "realism and pragmatism are always the premium movers that guide us."
The Foreign Adviser spelt out 10 coordinated aims to achieve the foreign policy goals. These include stabilizing Bangladesh's relations with its neighboring countries, fostering cooperation with multilateral frameworks, expanding economic cooperation with developed and other developing countries, and ensuring duty-free and quota-free access of products into foreign markets.
The other aims are: Exploring new markets for the country's excess manpower, attracting foreign investments, negotiating a favourable trade regime within the WTO, playing a proactive role within the UN system, supporting peacekeeping and peace-building operations and propagating Bangladeshi culture abroad.
In the pursuit of these objectives, Dr Iftekhar Chowdhury said the government has created a web linkages with key global actors, bilaterally, plurilaterally and multilaterally.
He said the government is also involved with the task of institution building to create appropriate structure to support pluralism and democracy in a sustainable fashion.
"We want to be seen by the rest of the world, as what we are, an oasis of stability and peace in an otherwise rather turbulent region, engaged in the domestic task of transforming our society for the better through micro credit, education and women empowerment," he told the seminar.
The Adviser said: "The soft power of persuasion is the main available instrument with us to fashion an external behaviour pattern that is neither too active nor too passive, but never the flashy kind, nor is it simply domestic policy carried beyond the boundary of the states. It is shaped by factors which have their origins both externally and internally."
Jointly organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the U.K. based International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), the opening session of the dialogue was also addressed by IISS representative Hilary Synnott and Director General (Europe) Nazmul Kaonain. Foreign Secretary Touhid Hossain, foreign diplomats, former ambassadors and senior officials of the Foreign Ministry and IISS were present.
