Subservient foreign policy buried, FM tells parliament
Khalilur Rahman says Bangladesh now pursues an independent diplomacy.
Bangladesh has buried its "subservient foreign policy" and gained the ability to stand with its head held high internationally through the current government's firm and self-reliant diplomacy, Foreign Minister Dr Khalilur Rahman told parliament today (27 August).
He made the remarks while responding to lawmakers' questions on the overall performance of Bangladesh's foreign missions during the third session of parliament, chaired by Speaker Hafiz Uddin Ahmed.
"The country has gained the ability to stand with its own backbone and head held high in the international arena because of the successful and far-sighted foreign policy of the current prime minister," he said.
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Khalilur said Bangladesh had moved away from the weak diplomatic position of the past 15 years and "buried the subservient foreign policy".
Asked whether successful foreign missions should be rewarded for creating overseas jobs, exploring new labour markets, increasing worker migration and boosting bilateral trade, the minister said the government should review whether a special reward system should be introduced.
He alleged that during the previous 15 years, foreign policy and diplomatic missions were effectively under government control, while there was little effective oversight of embassies, expatriate services and the protection of Bangladesh's economic and political interests.
The current government has been able to overcome the "stagnant and ineffective" state of the missions, he said.
Khalilur also said the government was working to introduce key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the efficiency and accountability of diplomatic missions.
"KPIs are being developed to evaluate the performance of every embassy. Based on these, the quality and grading of the missions will be determined in the future," he said.
He added that updated information on the achievements and failures of each embassy would be presented to lawmakers during the next national budget session.
The minister also described the Foreign Ministry's current budget as inadequate compared with the country's size, economic priorities and the importance of global diplomacy.
He expressed hope that, under the prime minister's leadership, higher budget allocations and policy reforms would further strengthen Bangladesh's diplomatic relations.
