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Support efforts to repatriate Rohingya to Myanmar: India
India said it supports all efforts for the safe and speedy repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar after Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina raised the matter during talks with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi
New Delhi: India on Tuesday said it supports all efforts for the safe and speedy repatriation of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar after Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina raised the matter during talks with her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.
Bangladesh currently shelters more than one million Rohingya refugees, most of them in the Cox’s Bazar region, and has been calling on India to use its influence with Myanmar to start the process for sending them back to their homes in Rakhine state. Most of the Rohingya fled Myanmar during a military crackdown in 2017.
Foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra told a media briefing after the talks between the two prime ministers that India has always played a “positive role” in the issue of the Rohingya refugees. Responding to several questions on the issue and Dhaka’s expectations from New Delhi in the matter, Kwatra said India favours the expeditious return of the displaced people.
The world community, he pointed out, has lauded the role played by Bangladesh in giving shelter and help to Rohingya refugees. India has provided assistance for the Rohingya in Bangladesh, including financial aid, and will continue to consider providing help to meet their needs in future too, he said.
“The Indian government supports all efforts for the secure, steady and speedy return of the displaced people from Myanmar in different countries,” he said, speaking in Hindi. In this context, India has always played positive role and will continue working for a solution to this problem with a positive point of view, he added.
During a brief informal interaction with reporters on the sidelines of a reception hosted by the Bangladesh high commission on Monday night, Hasina had said a big country such as India can “do a lot” to help Bangladesh deal with the issue of Rohingya refugees.
India has created infrastructure in Rakhine state to facilitate the return of Rohingya, but has traditionally refrained from nudging the Myanmarese junta regarding their repatriation over concerns about pushing Myanmar closer to China. India’s policy towards Myanmar is also shaped by its concerns related to insurgent groups that operate from the neighbouring country.
Responding to a separate question, Kwatra said the Indian and Bangladesh governments have constant discussions on the issue of Bangladesh’s minority communities. The Bangladesh government, both publicly and in private discussions, has clearly stated it is fully committed to the security and safety of the country’s minorities, he said.
In recent years, India has raised the issue of attacks on Bangladesh’s sizeable Hindu minority. The most recent such instance was the attack on puja pandals in some parts of Bangladesh during last year’s Durga Puja. The Sheikh Hasina government has said it takes all such incidents seriously and has responded swiftly to crack down on those responsible.
Kwatra said in response to yet another question about China’s presence in Bangladesh and the implementation of infrastructure projects by the Chinese side that the New Delhi-Dhaka relationship stands “on its own merits” and is not influenced by the activities of a third country.
One element of the comprehensive discussions between the two prime ministers was how the two countries will continue to cooperate on politics and security, and there was a “very clear common understanding” that the strategic priorities of the two sides and their interests and concerns are “all factored in our cooperative matrix of engagement”, he said.
“Our relationship stands on its own merits, focuses on our own priorities [and] looks at our shared concerns, whether they relate to safety issues or security issues,” he added.
