The chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, Khaleda Zia, has offered a dialogue between her party’s acting secretary general Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir and Awami League general secretary Syed Ashraful Islam on the issue of a non-party neutral government to oversee the next general elections. Khaleda made the offer during a meeting with Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jun at her Gulshan office on Monday evening.
Li said as a friend of Bangladesh, China expressed its concern over the current political stalemate in Bangladesh.
He said, ‘We have seen both BNP and Awami League agree that the coming election should be free, fair and inclusive, and leading statesmen have showed their willingness to resolve the dispute through discussion.’
‘The Chinese side sincerely hopes that both the parties could continue to show goodwill to each other, build trust and enlarge consensus, so as to create a sound environment for the next election,’ he said.
In response Khaleda said, ‘Future development of political situation will depend on the actions of the government. We are ready to hold talks with the government on elections under a non-party neutral government.’
The main points of the discussion in the meeting between Khaleda and Li were released to the press by the Chinese embassy in Dhaka on Tuesday.
The ambassador said he had noticed that recently BNP had been conducting mass contact programmes in peaceful ways, and he had also come to know that BNP would have larger political movements after October 25. He believes these future programmes will also be peaceful.
In reply, Khaleda said BNP did not believe in violence and that they had been conducting programmes in peaceful ways. ‘Regarding the war crimes trial, we hope that the trials should be fair and follow internationally accepted standards.’
Li said China was also a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country and they understood that it was very important for people of different ethnic groups and faiths to live in peace and mutual respect.
Khaleda said it had always been a major objective of BNP to let people of different ethnic groups and religions to live in harmony. ‘No matter what one person may believe in, they are all Bangladeshi people.’
Li said terrorism was a major global threat and close international cooperation was needed [to combat it].
Khaleda said BNP would exercise zero tolerance to terrorism if it came to power in the next elections.
Li said a country could not achieve development without a stable surrounding and environment.
In response Khaleda said BNP would like to develop peaceful, equal and cooperative relationship with India and Myanmar.
She also stressed that economic development, infrastructure building, investment promotion and education would be the policy priorities of BNP.
Li said as a major political force in Bangladesh, BNP had been playing a ‘very important role’ in maintaining social stability, economic development and national unity of this country. The Chinese side highly appreciates the excellent contributions made by successive Bangladesh governments in pushing forward our mutually beneficial cooperation and in supporting China on issues relating to China’s core and major interests.
Khaleda said as a time-tested and sincere friend, China was an important development partner for Bangladesh. ‘In the speech I made in Sylhet, I have publicly welcomed China’s involvement in Bangladesh economic development. We hope China could increase its investment in Bangladesh and establish an export processing zone.’
Li said China was now restructuring its economy and pushing forward all-dimensional reforms which would create a huge market opportunity for the world and more Chinese enterprises would invest abroad. The proposal of China-India-Myanmar-Bangladesh economic corridor, which include projects like Sonadia Deep Seaport, will help Bangladesh turn its geological advantage to economic and social competitiveness, and make Bangladesh a regional hub linking South Asia, Southeast Asia and China.
-With New Age input
