When Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni ends her tenure as foreign minister, within the next few months, she will leave behind a record of having undertaken the most’ number
of overseas visits as a Bangladeshi minister, in a single term.
With 187 foreign visits in over four-and-a-half years, according to different sources, the foreign minister could well be the most travelled minister not only in Bangladesh, but possibly in the entire world. The frequent overseas visits of Dipu Moni are well known, as well as, widely criticised. She has undertaken an excessive number of overseas trips since assuming office on January 6, 2009. Many, including former and incumbent diplomats, have questioned the necessity of so many visits, saying that the minister’s excessive foreign trips, at the cost of the taxpayers’ money, have not brought the desired results for the country.
The magnitude of the foreign minister’s overseas tours can be understood, by looking at her itinerary of the first 10 days of this month (July), and the month of June.
Dipu Moni arrived in Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei, on July 1, to participate in the 20th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting. After attending the event, she returned home on the night of July 3. The next morning (July 4), the foreign minister left for London, with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who went to the capital of the UK to attend the wedding ceremony of her niece and some other engagements, including a meeting with British foreign secretary William Hague.
From London, Dipu Moni flew to Geneva, Switzerland to attend a high-level meeting on Bangladesh’s readymade garments (RMG) sector, hosted by the European Union (EU) trade commissioner Karel De Gucht on July 8. After attending the meeting, she took a flight to Minsk, the Belorussian capital, to accompany the Prime Minister on her official visit to Belarus.
The minister returned home on July 10 with the Prime Minister on a VVIP flight. In these 10 days, the foreign minister covered a flight distance of over 23,320 kms. And now, she is scheduled to fly to New Delhi on a three-day visit to India on July 25.
The month of June was also a busy one for the foreign minister. She began the month with a visit to Singapore to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue on June 1, followed by a trip to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, on June 10-11 to participate in the OIC Conference of Donors for Palestine, as well as, to hold some bilateral meetings with the Azerbaijani
leadership.
From Baku, Dipu Moni flew to New York on a short visit to take part in the UN General Assembly Thematic Debate on Culture and Development on June 12. On the same day, she was on board a Swiss Air flight to Geneva, to attend an International Conference on Counter-terrorism, on June 13-14. Having returned from Geneva, Dipu Moni visited Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, from June 18 to 22.
On June 25, she made her way to Paris, to join the first Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Forum on Responsible Business, which was held on June 26-27.
Dipu Moni’s foreign schedule in the month of May included trips to Saudi Arabia, the US and Belgium.
The foreign minister’s trip to New York on June 12 was very interesting, and to many people, it was quite unusual. Although the event (the UN General Assembly Thematic Debate on Culture and Development) was suitable for the cultural affairs ministers, she flew to New York, herself. She was the only foreign minister to attend the event. According to different sources, Dipu Moni was at the venue of the event for only 15-20 minutes, and if there had been a flight delay from Baku she would have had to leave New York for Paris, without attending the event.
According to different sources at the foreign ministry, Dipu Moni, who initiated her foreign tours as the minister, with a visit to Geneva in early February 2009, has, so far, made a staggering 187 overseas visits. The number of visits in 2009 was 34. The figure remained the same, the following year (2010).
Dipu Moni made 44 overseas trips in 2011, and 46 in 2012. In the current year, she has so far made 29 trips. Of all the visits, she has visited UK, 20 times, the US, 16 times, and India, 10 times. Some 44 of her visits were with VVIPs. In total, the first female foreign minister of the country has spent about 600 days out of the country, in nearly four-and-half years.
Again, as per the tentative programme schedule, Dipu Moni is due to undertake quite a few overseas trips, before the tenure of the government ends.
Talking to some officials, it has been learnt that in terms of foreign tours, Dipu Moni not only surpassed her counterparts in neighbouring countries, but also the foreign ministers of the developed countries. No foreign minister is known to have undertaken so many visits in 54 months.
The immediate past US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, visited 112 countries in her four-year tenure, spending 306 days overseas. Although specific figures are not available, different sources suggest that the foreign ministers of South Asian countries, such as India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, are no match for Dipu Moni, when it comes to overseas tours.
Among the visits undertaken by the foreign minister, only a handful of them were bilateral. The overwhelming majority of the visits was intended to attend multilateral programmes, seminars and symposiums.
It is needless to say that these visits involve a lot of expenditure. Besides, the minister does not move alone. She is always accompanied by some officials. Despite extensive efforts, the exact cost incurred by the foreign minister’s overseas visits could not be known from the relevant department of the foreign ministry.
“The foreign minister’s office deals with the accounts relating to the minister’s visits. An official has been given the responsibility of handling bills and vouchers,” said a source.
The complete figures are not available.
Ministers are entitled to first-class air travel, hotel suites at a cost of USD 295 to USD 420, per night, cash allowance, daily allowance, transit allowance, terminal allowance, allowance for team leader, and airport tax. An economy class ticket from Dubai to New York, on Emirates, costs about Tk. 1.46 lakh, while a first-class ticket for the same route costs around Tk. 8.5 lakh, the sources pointed out. The foreign minister has been criticised for the excessive number of overseas visits. Even many in the ruling party and the foreign ministry are not comfortable with Dipu Moni’s frequent instances of foreign travel.
As a few former diplomats pointed out, it is obvious that a foreign minister, because of the nature of the job, will travel more than other ministers, but not to this extent. The visits should be undertaken after taking into account the national interest, and whether the country can afford them, they said. People are absolutely right in asking questions about the outcome of these visits, they added.
-With The Independent input
