Bangladesh ready to engage with everyone who wishes no harm: Momen

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen on Thursday said Bangladesh is ready to engage with everyone who wishes no harm and who does not wish to use Bangladesh's resources for launching offensive agenda of their own.

"We believe in inclusive and sustainable development. We continuously study the international events," he said, adding that Bangladesh now engages with the world on its own terms.

Momen said they believe in 'reasoning by the first principle' and believe in partnerships for mutual economic benefits.

"That's how we envision and leverage our sovereign national interests. I believe that the strategic location, the rich demographic dividend and a strong domestic market make us an important player on the chessboard and our choices make us a pivot and a pole both," said the foreign minister.

Momen was addressing a hybrid seminar on "Changing Global Order: Securing Bangladesh's National Interest" organised by the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) in the city.

The foreign minister said they believe, as Bangabandhu believed "peace is imperative for economic development" and let Bangladesh emit the gospel of peace and stability across nations.

He said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina by giving shelter to 1.1 million persecuted ethnic Rohingya minority of Myanmar has again set up an example in the world that "humanity is above all". "Let us applaud Sheikh Hasina."

Momen said Bangladesh is a country of resilience and its people are defenders of high moral grounds. "From the time of the War of Independence to the pandemic, from flood to drought, we have shown our courage, our resiliency and we fought valiantly."

He said they are a nation that the Almighty blessed abundantly with natural resources. "Whatever happens, whatever comes in our path in the future, Bangabandhu's Golden Bengal will come alive and none can suppress us."

Momen also said, "We will sustain. We will prosper with pride and with honour."