Dhaka does not have any plan to withdraw troops from any of its United Nations peacekeeping missions across the world. “Our troops are carrying out peacekeeping operations in conflict zones in different parts of the globe. And, their works are profusely praised worldwide,” a senior foreign ministry official said yesterday. “So, there is no chance of withdrawing any troops from anywhere in the world,” he said.
The official was speaking when Dhaka’s reaction was sought to a question asked at a regular briefing at the UN headquarters in New York on Friday over the withdrawal of troops from a mission. A questioner suggested that in the past threat was made to withdraw the Bangladeshi peacekeepers from South Sudan.
“I'm not aware of statements being made to the UN,” Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in reply on Friday
In reply to another question regarding Bangladesh at that briefing, the spokesman said, “There was a phone call, I believe, from the foreign minister of Bangladesh to the secretary-general expressing their concern at the placement of the Saudi‑led coalition on the list (of blacklisted countries).”
While in Riyadh last week, Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali made a phone call to the UN chief to request him to reverse the decision to blacklist Saudi-led coalition.
The senior official, when asked about the phone call, admitted that there was a telephone conversation between the two, but stressed that the issue of peacekeeping operation did not come up at all.
The foreign minister requested the UN secretary-general to attend the Global Forum on Migration and Development in Dhaka in December this year, he said.
When contacted, Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque declined to make any comment on the telephone conversation.