The diplomatic circles in the United Nations are sceptical about any positive and specific outcome in the Copenhagen Climate Conference as the developed countries are quite reluctant to make any explicit commitment to help the developing world to mitigate the effect of climate change. So Bangladesh, which is the seventh largest country in terms of population, has opted for asking $100 billion over next 10 years to fight this climate change, for which the developing countries like Bangladesh are not at all responsible.
This was stated by the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh Dr A. K. Abdul Momen in an exclusive interview with the Holiday correspondent prior to the Copenhagen summit. In his elaborate interview he justified his appointment as Permanent Representative to the United Nations and said that he is going to quit the citizenship of the USA. However he said that that was not the barrier to his appointment.
Dr Momen said, Bangladesh wants grant not credit. Criticising the conditions imposed by the developed world, particularly by the G-8 group in disbursement of $1.1 trillion fund for the development of the poor countries as not compatible with the prevailing circumstances of the recipient countries, Dr Momen said the conditions should be relaxed. He said that in terms of number of population Bangladesh should receive $14 billion out of the total commitment. But there is a condition that the recipient country must allocate 25 per cent of their budget in education sector, which is not compatible with the developing countries. The total amount of budget, in many poor countries, is so meagre that 25 per cent allocation cannot be allowed in education sector, by cutting budget for other sectors.
Dr Momen said that the Permanent Representatives of the 8 members of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation held a meeting recently and agreed to take a common stand in the Copenhagen conference and issue a joint statement urging the developed world to adopt a pragmatic and concrete resolution to mitigate the problems of climate change. He said that the achievement made in Bali conference should be carried forward and the outcome of previous Kyoto summit should be the baseline regarding harmonisation of the policies and actions regarding the effects of climate change.
Voicing the concern
Dr Momen said that one-fourth of the global population live in South Asia and considering this reality the permanent representatives of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Afghanistan agreed to issue statement to voice the concern of the people of the area in a chorus. He said that the Caribbean and African Permanent Representatives always take a common stand on any common issues, but it was absent among the representatives of Asia.
He said that he has a mission in the United Nations and he is, unlike other Permanent Representatives, who came here with jobs. He said that he came here to increase the visibility of Bangladesh and he is working to achieve that goal.
He said that climate change is interlinked with food security and with the recession in food production all over the world, the issue has come up in forefront once again and he said that he has mooted a proposal that in order to increasing the global stock of food, the United Nations should initiate projects to bring the fallow lands in different countries of the world particularly in Arab and other African countries should be brought under cultivation. He said that in Bangladesh the government wants to fulfil the target of universal primary education, for which he thinks that food for education could be an effective method. He said that the programme was in vogue during Pakistan period, but later it was stopped.
Dr Momen said that to increase the visibility of Bangladesh among the world community, Bangladesh contested elections in different committees including ECOSOC, UNESCO Human rights Committee and World Population Award committee. Bangladesh will also contest in the accounts committee of the United Nations for 2011 and 2013. He said that Bangladesh is planning to contest for the membership of UN security council in the year 2016. He said that during the visit of Prime Minister to the United Nations, he could ensure the visibility of Bangladesh and Prime Minister got several chances to sit beside President Obama on different occasions. He said that he has a very good rapport with Permanent Representative of the United States, who has given her assurance that she would support him on any positive proposal.
Arbitration with Myanmar & India
Regarding the arbitration about maritime boundary and continental shelf with Myanmar and India Dr Momen said that, if the maritime boundary remained disputed, no international company will come to explore resources in the area. So Bangladesh has opted for arbitration with Myanmar and India and engaged Folly Hoga, an internationally reputed law firm to help Bangladesh in this regard. He said that Myanmar has also engaged an Indian law firm, while India has its own firm. Hiring foreign law firm requires huge monetary involvement. So he said, ''We are also trying to solve the issue bilaterally.'' Dr Momen said that to improve bilateral relations with Myanmar, Bangladesh has voted against sanction on Myanmar, unlike many other countries. He said Myanmar also wants to resolve the issue. He disclosed that Bangladesh and Myanmar will sit for a bilateral discussion on this issue in December.
He said that to increase the visibility of Bangladesh he is also working to place a replica of Shahid Minar inside the UN building. He said that the new office building is ready now and the office of the permanent mission will be located at the new building soon.
Concerning the report about Saudi Arabia's refusal to accept him as an Ambassador there, Dr Momen said that was absolutely false. Rather he said that he and his family did not want to go there and accordingly his name was withdrawn. Dr Momen said that he would quit his US citizenship. He was ousted from job during Ershad regime under Martial Law regulation 9. In February, 2003 he had to leave the country and started teaching in the USA and subsequently acquired the US citizenship.
Dr Momen said that he has very good relations with Saudi Arabia and they never told anything against me. He said when he was in Saudi Arab with US job, he had developed conflict with some unscrupulous manpower businessmen, who would run business under the name and shield of some Arab Sheikhs. "Those manpower agents found some problem in my appointment as Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and they had spread the news against me", Dr Momen said.
He said regarding his posting, the newspapers misled the readers and the Foreign Ministry should have issues rejoinder to that report.
