Bangladesh and India share responsibility for resolving the cross-border push-in problem through dialogue, Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said. Answering a reporter’s question at a regular briefing at UN headquarters in New York on Wednesday, Dujarric said it was the responsibility of both countries to settle the push-in problem at the border through talks.
At the briefing, a reporter said attention should return to the situation on the Bangladesh-India border. While international focus is currently on the U.S.-Iran talks, Lebanon, South Sudan and Haiti, the reporter said, the lives of several hundred women and children are at risk on the Bangladesh-India border. With children crying from hunger and women spending nights in the open, the reporter asked how the secretary-general viewed the matter.
In response, Dujarric said it was the responsibility of both countries to resolve the problem through dialogue and with full respect for human rights and human dignity.
In a follow-up question, the reporter noted that the newly elected president of the UN General Assembly had earlier served as high representative for Rohingya affairs during Bangladesh’s interim government, and would take up the General Assembly presidency within a few months.
The reporter added that the secretary-general had himself served in the past as the UN high commissioner for refugees, and asked whether there was fresh reason for optimism on Rohingya repatriation.
Dujarric said the General Assembly president’s main responsibility was to run the assembly’s business, so General Assembly matters would take priority in contacts between the secretary-general and the assembly president. He added that work on the Rohingya crisis was continuing through a separate process.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report