Bangladesh promotes culture of peace: Momen

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen on Friday said Bangladesh adopted a ‘culture of peace,’ which is Bangabandhu’s vision who wanted an independent space for human life and human dignity.

“Bangabandhu wanted an independent refuge in the very quotidian life where he or she could be safe from oppression, hunger, malnutrition, ignorance and hatred,” said Dr Momen.

He was delivering a keynote speech at the prestigious Emirates Centre for Strategic and Security Studies at Abu Dhabi on the “Vision of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on Global Peace and World Security,” UNB reports.

The foreign minister said Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was an ardent campaigner for peace, justice, and humanity.

He said Bangabandhu gave precedence to the ‘rule of law’. “Even when those same rules and laws were institutionalised to oppose his vision and his political and economic objectives, Bangabandhu never adhered to violence or hatred as a countermeasure,” said the Minister.

Momen noted that Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s vision of the world and of world peace is rooted in the vision of Bangabandhu.

During the 66th UN General Assembly in 2011, he said, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina gave the world a six-point multi-dimensional peace-centric development model for championing democracy and people’s empowerment.

The six multipliers of her proposed model include eradication of poverty and hunger, reduction of inequality and gainful employment, mitigation of deprivation, inclusion of excluded people, acceleration of human development and including imparting education and technology and elimination of terrorism,  Momen said.

The foreign minister spoke about the economic diplomacy vertices of the government. “We wish to build and operate a design space where inclusivity and prosperity for all would be a given and the enhancement of the human capability would be at the core of expectations.”

He also said, “A Creative Economy and a Design Economy marked by innovation and entrepreneurship. That’s our alternative to all the doomsday prophecies all around us.”

Later, Chairman of Lulu Group Yusuf Ali met the Foreign Minister and both sides discussed the possibilities of integrating the country’s productive capabilities to the global supply chain solutions routing through the UAE, the Gulf and the UK and the EU territories.