Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Sunday stated that Bangladesh is exceptionally vulnerable to climate change.
“Climate change is real and we realized even more that we have to face the reality.”, he said while addressing the curtain raiser ceremony of the 23rd meeting of the Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) and 21st meeting of the Council of Ministers (COM) of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA).
Similarly, Indian Ocean Region, tagged as World’s Hazard Belt’, is always at the forefront of vulnerability to natural disasters, including cyclones, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis, the minister said.
The Indian Ocean region is warming at a higher rate, which means the relative sea level can also increase over the regions and it will contribute to more frequent and severe coastal flooding in low-level areas and coastal erosion, he added.
.%5B1%5D.png)
Considering the gravity of the crisis and unifying role of IORA in this regard, Bangladesh will propose a platform for climate change within the framework of IORA, FM said.
Since the establishment of IORA, Bangladesh is first time elected as Chair for the period 2021-2023. United Arab Emirates is the outgoing Chair. Sri Lanka is assuming the vice-chairship this year.
As the incoming chair, Bangladesh is hosting IORA’s 21st Council of Ministers (COM) and 23rd Committee of Senior Officials (CSO) Meetings in hybrid format consisting in-person and virtual participations.
“As you know, during the recent COP-26, we adopted an outcome document. During our chairship, we will also try to align IORA’s initiatives and projects with the outcomes of the COP as our strides to tackle the Climate Change in this region.”, the minister stated.
“Given widespread interest about Indo-Pacific, we expect that IORA will chalk out its own vision of the Indo-Pacific, a vision for a free, open, peaceful, secure and inclusive Indo-Pacific region, based on international law and with shared prosperity for all, so that we promote sustainable Blue Economy in the region.”, Abdul Momen said.
23rd Committee of Senior Officials’ (CSO) meeting will take place on 15-16 November. 21st Council of Ministers’ (COM) meeting will take place on 17 November. More than 15-member states with 11 ministerial level delegations are expected to join in-person. Another 8-10 ministers/vice ministers/deputy ministers are expected join virtually. In total around 80 delegates are coming to Dhaka to participate in the meetings.
In presence of 12 ministerial level delegations, the meeting is expected to showcase Bangladesh’s hospitality and offer good image of Bangladesh.
