Bangladesh welcomes Japan-led energy initiative for Asia Pacific

Bangladesh today (15 April) welcomed Japan-led initiative to deal with the energy issues in an efficient way in the Asia Pacific, noting that all countries need to come together as no country can alone solve it alone.

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman joined the online meeting at the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Takaichi Sanae.

The leaders of the participating countries said they will collaborate to address the current challenges together.

AZEC partner countries are Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Republic of Korea, India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, International Energy Agency (IEA), Asian Development Bank (ADB), Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)

Prime minister's foreign affairs adviser Humayun Kabir briefed the reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today.

The online meeting was attended by leaders of the Asian region, including partners of the Asia Zero-Emission Community (AZEC).

The Japanese Prime Minister announced the launch of "Partnership On Wide Energy and Resources Resilience (POWERR Asia)", a new cooperation framework consisting of both emergency responses and structural ones with mid-to-long-term perspectives.

This framework aims to cooperate in emergency responses through financing procurement of crude oil, petroleum products, and maintaining supply chains in Asia and addressing structural responses such as establishing stockpiling and release systems as well as the construction and utilisation of storage tanks to expand the number of days of crude oil reserves within the region, securing critical minerals and diversifying energy resources such as biofuels; and promoting industrial advancement through and energy-saving initiatives.

The support involves financial cooperation of approximately 10 billion dollars, which is equivalent to roughly one year's worth of crude oil imports for ASEAN if converted to crude oil and petroleum product procurement by Asian countries.

At the outset, Prime Minister Takaichi said the countries most affected by disruptions in the supply of energy and resources passing through the Strait of Hormuz are those in Asia, and it is necessary for Asian countries to work together in responding to this shared challenge because these impacts extend to all countries closely connected through supply chains.

Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr., President of the Republic of the Philippines: Anwar bin Ibrahim, Prime Minister of Malaysia: Lawrence WONG, Prime Minister and Minister for Finance of the Republic of Singapore: Anutin CHARNVIRAKUL, Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of the Kingdom of Thailand: Le Minh HUNG, Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam: Dr. José RAMOS-HORTA, President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste: Dr. KIM Min-seok, Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea also expressed their appreciation for holding this meeting.

These initiatives support the stability of Asian countries and contribute to strengthening Japan, including through the procurement of medical supplies from Asia to Japan.

Additionally, it embodies the realisation of the evolution of the Free and Open Indo-Pacific (FOIP) advocated by the Prime Minister TAKAICHI administration.

Besides, this initiative will serve as an opportunity to further develop the Asia Zero Emission Community (AZEC), which aims to simultaneously achieve energy security, economic growth, and decarbonization by incorporating perspectives on economic and energy resilience.