Trump assures PM of all supports on Rohingya issue

US President Donald Trump has assured Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of his country's all supports on the Rohingya issue as they talked on the sidelines of a high level meeting on UN reforms.

"President Trump said the United States will stand beside Bangladesh on Rohingya issue," Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque told newsmen referring to the conversation at UN headquarters here late yesterday. 

PM's press secretary Ihsanul Karim and Bangladesh press minister in Washington Shamim Ahmed joined the media briefing at Hotel Grand Hyatt when Haque said during the conversation President Trump raised the Rohingya issue and gave the assurance.

he said the US president also enquired about the current state of Bangladesh economy when Sheikh Hasina said it was progressing well.

Bangladesh is now reeling on a disastrous situation after exodus of over 4, 00,000 Myanmar nationals of Rohingya ethnicity since August 25 when the Burmese army launched an anti-Rohingya clampdown. 

The flesh influx began while Bangladesh previously accommodated another 4,00,000 of them for years as they fled their home to evade atrocities. 

Meanwhile, Indian external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj also reiterated New Delhi's assurance to remain beside Bangladesh on every issue including the Rohingya one and extend help to resolve the crisis. 

Swaraj, the foreign secretary said, informed the Bangladesh premier that she would arrive Dhaka on October 23-24 to attend Joint Commission meeting.

Earlier, UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi made a courtesy on Sheikh Hasina at the UN Headquarters the UN regugee agency wanted to help Bangladesh to resolve Rohingya problem and he planned to visit Bangladesh to observe the situation on the ground.

Sheikh Hasina said all UN agencies were welcome to work with her government in handling the issue but Bangladesh would exclusively carryout the task of the registration of displaced Myanmar nationals who took refuge in the country. 

Earlier, the prime minister Sheikh Hasina held a bilateral meeting with her Bhutanese counterpart Tshering Tobgay at UNHQ.

During the meeting Bhutanese premier requested Sheikh Hasina to provide services from the satellite which Bangladesh is going to launch in the space at the end of this year. Tshering also requested Bangladesh to have bandwidth services from second submarine cable of Bangladesh which was commissioned in the first week of this month.

The Foreign Secretary said Sheikh Hasina agreed to share bandwidth with Bhutan saying necessary modalities in this regard would be set up in addition to initiate a discussion with India as the cable will cross through Indian territory.

Source: bss