Bangladesh, China, Myanmar to hold tripartite meeting on Rohingyas on Jan 19

A secretary-level tripartite meeting between Bangladesh, China and Myanmar will be held on Tuesday (January 19th) at noon.

A Chinese Vice Minister and Permanent Secretary of Myanmar will discuss Rohingya repatriation with Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh Masood bin Momen. However, in preparation for the meeting, the Foreign Secretary met with Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming on Monday (January 17th). According to sources of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), the tripartite meeting may discuss other issues including creating a conducive environment in Rakhine, village and family-based repatriation, repatriation from the village from which they came, and providing security.

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Bangladesh will be urged to start repatriation before the onset of monsoon.

''Our preparations have been completed," a foreign ministry official said. Everyone involved in Rohingya repatriation will be present at the meeting at the Foreign Ministry, he added.

Asked what the foreign secretary had discussed with the Chinese ambassador, the official said, Preparations for tomorrow's meeting have been discussed. After August 2016, about eight lakh Rohingyas fled from Rakhine to save their lives in Bangladesh. After discussions at various levels, a meeting was held in New York in 2016 at the level of Foreign Ministers of Bangladesh, China and Myanmar.

The last tripartite meeting on Rohingya repatriation was held in January last year. Since then there have been no meetings of the three nations’ representatives because of the COVID-19 pandemic and national elections in Myanmar. However, this is the first tripartite meeting at the foreign secretary-level.