Rohingya crisis: Netherlands to stay focused at UNSC

The Netherlands has assured Bangladesh of remaining seized with the Rohingya crisis during their chairmanship of the UN Security Council in March this year, says Secretary-General of its Foreign Ministry Yoka Brandt.

The Rohingya issue came up for discussion at the Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) prominently.

Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Md Shahidul Haque and Secretary-General of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yoka Brandt led the respective delegations at the FOC held on Tuesday, said a press release today.

Bangladesh foreign secretary appreciated the Netherlands for their support to Bangladesh on the Rohingya crisis at the UN and other international fora.

The Dutch secretary-general highly appreciated Bangladesh for giving shelter to the forcibly displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar to Bangladesh.

Expressing deep appreciation to Bangladesh for support to Dutch non-permanent membership at the UN Security Council for 2018, the Dutch secretary-general highlighted that during their UN Security Council membership, the Netherlands will focus on prevention of conflict, accountability for atrocity and crimes, and reform of UN peacekeeping operations.

Accordingly, the Dutch government reiterated their resolve to make the perpetrators accountable for their deeds.

Bangladesh and the Netherlands also agreed to strengthen knowledge and innovation driven broad-based partnership for sustainable development.

According to their agreed terms, both the countries agreed to unroll more initiatives toward harnessing mutual complementariness.

The agreement reached at the third Foreign Office Consultations between Bangladesh and the Netherlands held in The Hague on Tuesday.

The third FOC reviewed at length the existing bilateral relations between Bangladesh and the Netherlands and decided to strengthen existing multifaceted cooperation, and identified new areas of collaboration for sustainable development of Bangladesh.

The two sides discussed about the follow-up of the official visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to the Netherlands in November 2015 and her invitation to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to undertake an official visit to Bangladesh this year for joint launching of Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100.

Bangladesh foreign secretary appreciated the Dutch technical assistance for the formulation of Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 and the Dutch side assured of extending the technical assistance and share their knowledge and long experience for the implementation of the plan.

The two sides also decided to collaborate in the areas of value-chain development in the textile and RMG, land reclamation, cyber security, blue economy, trade and investment, greenhouse agriculture, dairy farming, and aquaculture sectors of Bangladesh.

Praising Bangladesh's spectacular socio-economic development, the Dutch side assured Bangladesh of support during its transition to a middle income country from a LDC and its efforts toward attaining SDGs.

Bangladesh and the Netherlands held the first FOC in September 2015 in The Hague and the second one in Dhaka in May 2016.