USA wants Myanmar to create conditions in Rakhine for voluntary Rohingya return

USA has said it’ll continue to call upon Myanmar government to create right conditions in Rakhine state so that persecuted Rohingyas can voluntarily return to homes safely from Bangladesh.

Visiting Deputy Assistant Secretary in the US State Department's Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Daniel N Rosenblum said, "We'll continue to call on Myanmar government to create right conditions in Rakhine State that will facilitate safe return of Refugees."

The official made the remarks on Tuesday while responding to a set of questions after delivering a lecture on 'The United States and the Indo-Pacific Region' in Dhaka.

Ambassador Marcia Benicat and BIISS Director General AKM Abdur Rahman, among others, spoke with BIISS Chairman Munshi Faiz Ahmad in the chair.

Mr Rosenblum said they strongly applaud the government of Bangladesh's response to the Rohingya crisis and its generosity in giving Rohingyas shelter in the country.

According to him, "We appreciate the efforts that the government is making to ensure that assistance reaches refugee camps."

Everybody knows, he said, “we've spoken out strongly about the atrocities."

He added that they would keep speaking out, will keep providing assistance and keep recognising the sacrifices Bangladesh made in dealing with tragedy.

UNB said the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) hosted the event at its conference room in the afternoon.

Mr Rosenblum also said the US wants to work with Bangladesh and other like-minded nations to build a prosperous, secure, and interconnected Indo-Pacific.

"The United States is committed to working with nations in South Asia or the broader region," he said.

Mr Rosenblum said concerted efforts by many partners will be needed if they are to connect these vast regions together in the interest of common prosperity and opportunity.

The US diplomat highly appreciated Bangladesh for peacefully resolving its maritime disputes with India and Myanmar. "Bangladesh is a model in this respect."

Despite rapid growth, Mr Rosenblum said, South Asia lags behind Southeast Asia in measures of intraregional trade and connectivity.

"For centuries, South Asia was a region bound together by the exchange of goods, people, and ideas. But today it's one of the least economically integrated regions in the world," he said.

The World Bank estimates that with barriers removed and streamlined custom procedures, interregional trade in South Asia would nearly quadruple from the current $28 billion to over $100 billion.

"Bangladesh would stand to benefit better than most from greater regional connectivity, both in terms of soft and hard infrastructure," Rosenblum said.

At present, less than three percent of Bangladesh's exports go to India and other countries in South Asia, he said.

Mr Rosenblum said expanding economic connectivity is another primary goal of the Indo-Pacific strategy. "A critical piece of the connectivity puzzle is infrastructure."

He said one of the challenges Bangladesh and other Indo-Pacific countries face is the sheer expense of these essential infrastructure improvements and the understandable temptation to trade a lower price point now for more immediate but less sustainable results.

To promote transparency among partner countries, Rosenblum said the Millennium Challenge Corporation, an independent US government agency, supports the development of countries that adhere to certain standards of democratic rights and that effectively combat corruption.

"We are exploring deeper partnerships on both security and infrastructure in the Indo-Pacific region with other likeminded countries including Japan, India and Australia."

He said, "As the great Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore said, "You can't cross the sea merely by standing and staring at the water."