Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry Advisor Touhid Hossain has defended Bangladesh’s unofficial engagement contact with the Arakan Army, which has taken control of neighboring Rakhine State in Myanmar.
Responding to reporters at the Foreign Ministry on Sunday, the advisor said keeping in touch was a “necessity” and in Dhaka’s own interest.
“We have officially acknowledged that the situation along Bangladesh’s border has changed, we cannot deny it,” he said according to bdnews24.com. “The entire stretch of our border with Myanmar is now under the control of non-state actors. The central government has no authority there.”
“Therefore, in our own interest, we must maintain some form of communication. While we cannot engage in official communications with a non-state actor, it is not possible to remain entirely disconnected either. We will maintain whatever level of engagement is necessary,” he added.
The AA began fighting against Myanmar military regime in Rakhine in November 2023 and has since seized 14 of the state’s 17 townships as well as Paletwa Township in neighboring Chin State.
Last year it captured the regime’s Western Command headquarters in Rakhine, the second of the 14 the junta’s military commands.
Myanmar and Bangladesh share a 270 km border, and with the capture of Maungdaw Township last December, the AA took full control of the Myanmar side.
The same month, Bangladesh’s interim government announced for the first time that it had opened communication with the AA.
Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from the border regions of Rakhine fled to Bangladesh in 2017 amid attacks on them by the Myanmar military.
All efforts to repatriate them over the last eight years have failed.
Asked whether engagement with the AA risks dragging Bangladesh into Myanmar’s internal affairs, Touhid said: “Whether or not we become entangled in Myanmar’s internal affairs is another matter. But the conflict in Myanmar is directly linked to our national interest because a large number of their citizens have taken refuge in Bangladesh, and we want to facilitate their return.”
“We must do whatever is necessary to support their repatriation, because our national interest demands it,” he added.
The interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus has also agreed to a United Nations proposal to establish a humanitarian assistance channel into Rakhine.
