Analysts have highlighted the importance of the Middle East to Bangladesh in terms of geo-politics, geo-economy and geo-energy.
Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) and Dhaka Tribune hosted the BIPSS-Dhaka Tribune Roundtable seminar titled, "The Changing Dynamics of the Middle East: Implications for Bangladesh'' at a city hotel on Wednesday.
The region houses two of the holy mosques and key players of major significance to the Muslim Ummah, and thus Bangladesh, due to its religious Muslim majority and its OIC membership, does hold the region in high regard in terms of strategic significance, said analysts speaking at the event.
They said Bangladesh is also dependent on the Middle East for inward remittance so it needs to lean towards undertaking actionable policies to ensure its stronger footprint in the region and to help mitigate the turbulence that has befallen.
BIPSS President Major General (Retd) ANM Muniruzzaman, Dhaka Tribune Editor Zafar Sobhan, Dhaka University Prof Lailufar Yasmin and Assistant Prof of the Department of Economics at East-West University Parvez Karim Abbasi spoke at the discussion.
They observed that the Middle East has been a hotbed of turbulence, conflict and insurgencies for decades.
Even after all these years of destruction and bloodshed, the chaos is not showing any sign of slowing down anytime soon.
As a matter of fact, the multifaceted phenomenon currently ongoing in the region is only becoming more complicated and dynamic.
The ever-changing landscape, with the already existing shaky governance in the Middle East region, tends to have implications on a global scale and spill overs beyond comprehension, said the speakers.
The roundtable was attended by diplomats, scholars, security experts, and youth representatives from various disciplines.
Muniruzzaman laid out how the power architecture inherited from the colonial rule in the Middle East had condemned the region to perpetual instability, leaving behind questionable borders and dissatisfied ethnic minorities, ultimately fueling state and non-state actors to challenge the existing state and territorial sovereignty.
Pondering the crisis in Lebanon, Lailufar Yasmin elaborated on the possible spillover across the region and also talked about the ongoing challenges and the role of hard and soft diplomacy in the Middle East.
She went on to shed some light on the crisis in Yemen, the post-election turmoil in Iraq and their overarching implications and discussed the growing instability in Palestine and how the world community has presumably forgotten about the nation itself.
She also focused on the fresh talks leading to the revival of the US-Iran Nuclear deal and the aftermath that will ensue following the revival.
Parvez Abbasi explained the underlying factors, interfaces, and different caveats concerning the geo-economic realities of the Middle East.
He talked about the rising tension within the Arab youth and how this factor can lead to the creation of "Arab Spring 2.0" and highlighted the key facets of the current Syrian Civil War and whether Syria will be able to reintegrate itself into the global system.
Abbasi analysed the different aspects of the energy transition that the world is going through and its overall implications on how it can potentially lead to the socio-economic fallout of the region.
