Japanese ambassador to Bangladesh Ito Naoki on Monday said that Japan expected that the next general elections here would be free and fair.
‘We expect free and fair elections in Bangladesh. We expressed concern over 2018 elections as it was more focused on violence,’ the diplomat said at an event titled Meet the Ambassador, organised by Centre for Governance Studies with the support of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Bangladesh in the city.
Ito said that major political parties would join the next polls to be held in December 2023 or in January 2024.
According to a report of the United News of Bangladesh, the Japanese ambassador also said that it was unlikely to see a full-scale Rohingya repatriation anytime soon due to the situation in Myanmar at this moment.
‘It’ll be very difficult to see repatriation of Rohingyas in full-scale soon. Unless you see the improvement of situation in Myanmar, it’ll be very difficult for us to see their repatriation to Myanmar,’ he said.
They ambassador said that Japan was communicating with the Myanmar military and Myanmar needed to halt violence, release detainees and restore the democracy there.
He said that they might be able to start pilot repatriation at this moment as a full-scale repatriation of Rohingyas to their homeland was not possible now.
Bangladesh is now hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas in Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char and not a single Rohingya was repatriated over the last five years.
‘More than five years have passed. The situation is very unfortunate. Repatriation is of course the priority,’ said the ambassador, adding that they were ready to work with the government of Bangladesh for repatriation of the Rohingyas.
The envoy said this was a crucial challenge for the international community.
The ambassador also said that his country wanted to elevate the bilateral ties with Bangladesh to a ‘strategic’ level adding more elements like defence and security areas to the growing relations.
‘We have comprehensive partnership. We intend to elevate it. Hopefully we can agree to call our partnership a strategic partnership,’ he said referring to likely discussion on the issue during prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s upcoming visit to Japan.
Ambassador Naoki expressed his country’s interest to export defence related equipment to Bangladesh which would further be discussed between the two sides.
Sharing Japan’s vision for Free and Open Indo-Pacific, the envoy said this was something very comprehensive but not against any country or contain any country.
He said that Japan considered Bangladesh as a partner of FOIP. ‘We will continue to promote our practical cooperation.’
Ambassador Naoki said that infrastructure development, connectivity, maritime security and capacity building of security forces were parts of the practical cooperation that they promoted.
Regarding investment, the envoy said that there were challenges but hopefully there would be improvements in terms of investment environment.
Zillur Rahman, executive director of the Centre for Governance Studies moderated the programme.
