Karachi, 05 December 2022:

Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner in Karachi S. M. Mahbubul Alam addresses a group of students of Department of International Relations and Department of Business Management at the Suffa University in Karachi. Around 50 students and faculty members of the university were present. Vice Chancellor Prof Dr. M. Afzal Haque, Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof Dr. Ahmed Saeed Minhas, and Honorary Advisor to Vice Chancellor Mr. Naqi Azam received the Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh at the University Campus.

In his speech as the Chief Guest and the Speaker on “Bangladesh’s Foreign Policy and Bangladesh’s Success Stories” the Deputy High Commissioner S. M. Mahbubul Alam briefed the students and the faculty members and academics of Suffa University on areas of cooperation of the Bangladesh-Pakistan bilateral relationships. He highlighted on the Bangladesh’s success stories in the diplomatic fronts. He mentioned that Bangladesh has been pursuing the foreign policy of “Friendship to all and malice towards none” since her Independence in 1971 as was postulated by the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which continues to provide the philosophical underpinning of Bangladesh’s pro-peace foreign policy. He further mentioned that Father of the Nation propounded the peace and development-centric foreign policy, which remains the guiding principle of Bangladesh’s diplomatic engagements today. He mentioned that Father of the Nation was a pioneer in promoting regional and international peace and he was awarded the ‘Juliot-Curie Peace Price” in 1973.

Deputy High Commission briefed that Bangladesh has given shelter on humanitarian ground to over 1.1 million Rohingyas, who are the forcibly displaced nationals of Myanmar and the entire international community highly appreciated the Bangladesh’s policy-decision. He further mentioned that Bangladesh was the leading proponent and had significant role in mooting the notion and steering the UN General Assembly resolution on ‘Culture of Peace’ in 1999. Bangladesh ranks as the top troops and police contributing country in the UN Peacekeeping operations he added. He further added that Bangladesh has peacefully settled the land borders and maritime boundaries with the neighboring countries. He also highlighted the socio-economic development of Bangladesh and mentioned that that Bangladesh has full-filled all the criteria for graduation to developing country from LDC status. The international community has already cited Bangladesh as the ‘Role Model’ for socio-economic development. Bangladesh has attained the per capita income of US$2,824 and already has achieved ‘Vision 2021’ and is striving hard to achieve “Vision 2041” to become a higher middle-income country by 2031 and developed country by 2041.

The students of Suffa University were deeply impressed to know the success stories and dynamic foreign policy of Bangladesh. They have shown huge interest to know more about Bangladesh, the people of Bangladesh and the Development policies of Bangladesh. The students during the Q&A Session candidly expressed their views and commented that their earlier perception regarding Bangladesh has changed after listening to the address. They expressed their willingness to have wider people-to-people contacts and cooperation in all possible areas including education and research.