Diplomatic Correspondent

Speaker Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury has called upon the UK parliamentarians to raise their voices at Westminster in favour of financing climate vulnerable nations such as Bangladesh, and advocate amongst G20 parliaments to arrest emissions and global warming.

The Speaker was delivering her speech as Chief Guest in an interactive dialogue entitled ‘Bangladesh Rising’ with British parliamentarians organised by Bangladesh High Commission, London on Wednesday.

Dr Chaudhury also emphasized strengthening institutional collaboration between Bangladesh and the British parliamentarians specially on strengthening parliamentary democracy and good governance, delivering on Agenda 2030, climate change, women empowerment and the protracted Rohingya crisis.

During the Dialogue, Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury also highlighted that Bangladesh has been sheltering and protecting the 1.1 million Rohingyas fleeing from Myanmar for 5 years now, and the only solution to the Rohingya crisis lies in the safe and sustainable return of the persecuted Rohingyas back to their homeland in Myanmar. She urged British parliamentarians to play a leading role globally in resolving the Rohingya crisis towards a sustainable solution.

Paying profound tributes to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the Month of Mourning, Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury said, “It was Bangabandhu’s enduring and value-based friendship with the-then British prime ministers and parliamentarians from both Conservative and Labour parties that continues to inspire the very robust and multi-faceted bilateral engagements between Bangladesh and the UK”.”.

At the ‘Bangladesh Rising’, Dialogue Speaker Dr Shirin also presented a talk to the British parliamentarians on the dramatic transformation of Bangladesh’s economy over the last decade under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s bold and dynamic leadership.

The Bangladesh Speaker also highlighted the contributions of the four British-Bangladeshi parliamentarians and one House of Lords member of Bangladeshi origin in strengthening Bangladesh-UK friendship.

Dr Chaudhury invited all the MPs and the members of the House of Lords to visit Bangladesh during the historic 50 years of Bangladesh-UK diplomatic relations.

The dialogue, chaired and moderated by Bangladesh High Commissioner to the UK Saida Muna Tasneem, was attended among others by prominent British parliamentarians including Lord Sheikh of Cornhill, Vice Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh, Lord Evans of Watford, Member of the House of Lords Committee on SME, Baroness Thornton, Shadow Spokesperson (Equalities & Women’s Issues), Baroness Manzila Pola Uddin, the first British-Bangladeshi Peer at the House of Lords, Mr Stephen Twigg, Secretary General of the CPA, Mr Sam Tarry MP, former Shadow Minister for Transport, and senior officials of Her Majesty’s Government. British MPs and the members of the House of Lords profusely lauded the recent outstanding economic progress that Bangladesh has made over the past decade under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and acknowledged Bangladesh as the new Asian tiger.

Later on the day, the Speaker visited the ‘Bangabandhu Centenary Peace Grove’ established by Bangladesh High Commission, London in collaboration with the London Borough of Brent at the Gladstone Park in London, where one hundred saplings were planted to commemorate the historic Mujib Year- the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.