The Rohingya issue was not discussed in the just-concluded BIMSTEC summit, as neither Bangladesh nor Myanmar showed interest to raise the issue there, said BIMSTEC Secretary General M Shahidul Islam on Monday.
"We think that both Bangladesh and Myanmar have shown diplomatic maturity by not raising the Rohingya issue in the summit when the organisation is not ready to deal with this kind of issue."
Both the countries feel that raising any contentious issue will hinder the progress of the forum, he told a post-summit press briefing at BIMSTEC Secretariat in the capital.
The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit concluded in Kathmandu, Nepal on August 31. BIMSTEC is a regional grouping comprising Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Bhutan and Nepal.
"The Rohingya issue was not included in the agenda, so there was no scope to discuss it in the summit. None of the seven members of BIMSTEC proposed to discuss the issue when the summit agenda was prepared," Mr Islam also said.
"The BIMSTEC summit was held after a long gap with high hope that it would strengthen the regional cooperation through the forum."
Nobody denied the existence of the Rohingya problem, and Bangladesh and Myanmar should engage themselves to resolve the issue, he added.
Mr Islam also pointed out that BIMSTEC is now concentrating on the issues for which there has been consensus among the countries.
"If we focus on the issues for which consensus is yet to be build, progress in other areas will be impeded."
"The member countries took a realistic view by compartmentalising the issues. They chose to discuss the issues on which they can continue collaboration putting aside the contentious issues," he noted.
Responding to a question whether the Rohingya issue was not discussed in the summit as India and Myanmar opposed the move, the BIMSTEC secretary general said none of the seven members proposed to discuss the issue in the summit.
He claimed that the summit was very successful, as it attempted to review the achievements of BIMSTEC in the last 20 years.
The leaders shown their strong commitment to strengthen the grouping by accelerating progress in the core areas of cooperation, he added.
They also committed to an early conclusion of BIMSTEC Free Trade Area.
Some instruments, like - MoU on legal cooperation on criminal matters, could not be signed, as Bhutan could not ratify those due to absence of any parliament in the country right now, he added.
