DHAKA, 10 June 2022, (TON): Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said “the government will focus on sustainable economic recovery in the third year of the pandemic.”

He said "now, in the third year of the pandemic, our priority will be to sustain the economic recovery by maintaining the trend of income generation and job creation and thus put the economy on a solid foundation.”

Therefore, we will continue to implement incentive programmes in the next fiscal year.

The minister said “this while placing the Tk 6,78,064 crore proposed national budget for FY22-23, wearing the traditional Mujib Coat over Panjabi, at Jatiya Sangsad in the city.”

MOSCOW, 10 June 2022, (TON): Russian President Vladimir Putin compared his current actions to Peter the Great’s conquest of the Baltic coast during his 18th-century war against Sweden.

After visiting an exhibition in Moscow dedicated to the 350th birthday of tsar Peter the Great, Putin told a group of young entrepreneurs that you get the impression that by fighting Sweden he was grabbing something. He wasn’t taking anything, he was taking it back.

Putin said “when Peter the Great founded Saint Petersburg and declared it the Russian capital none of the countries in Europe recognized this territory as belonging to Russia.”

The Russian leader added “everyone considered it to be part of Sweden. But from time immemorial, Slavs had lived there alongside Finno-Ugric peoples.”

Putin said “it is our responsibility also to take back and strengthen.”

He said “yes, there have been times in our country’s history when we have been forced to retreat, but only to regain our strength and move forward.”

LONDON, 10 June 2022, (TON): Saudi Press Agency reported that Saudi Arabia called on Iran to cooperate fully with the UN’s nuclear watchdog in order to clarify and resolve outstanding safeguards issues without delay.

Prince Abdullah bin Khalid bin Sultan, the Kingdom’s ambassador to Austria, expressed his country’s support for all efforts made by the International Atomic Energy Agency to maintain the safeguards system to limit nuclear proliferation.

Prince Abdullah, who is also the Saudi permanent representative to the IAEA in Vienna, was speaking during a meeting of the agency’s board of governors in the Austrian capital, where Tehran was censured for failing to provide information over nuclear material found at three undeclared sites.

He expressed his thanks to IAEA Director-General Rafael Grossi for his report on the Non-proliferation Treaty Safeguards Agreement with Iran and highlighted the need to inform member states of the developments related to Iran’s violations of the safeguards deal.

DHAKA, 10 June 2022, (TON): The GDP growth rate has been targeted to be 7.5 percent for the next fiscal year considering the lagged effects of the COVID-19 and the protracted crisis arising from the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said “this while placing the proposed national budget for FY23 at Jatiya Sangsad.”

He said “only in the FY20, the economic growth was hampered due to the pandemic.”

According to the new base year, a record 7.88 percent growth was achieved in FY19, but in the following year, FY20, it decreased to 3.45 percent due to the pandemic.

NEW DELHI, 10 June 2022, (TON): External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said “the Russia-Ukraine war has thrown up a crisis of fuel, food and fertiliser that will lead to hunger situations and have a very significant inflationary impact.”

The implications of the situation in Ukraine show up in what we call a three 'F' crisis fuel, food and fertiliser.

Mr Jaishankar said “the prices of these three have gone up. They have a very significant inflationary impact.”

The event was organised by the National Institute of Advanced Studies in association with International Studies Network Bangalore in the city.

The minister said “the country faced four major challenges in the last two years. These four issues were COVID-19, tension with China along the Line of Actual Control, the Afghanistan situation and the Ukraine war.”

Mr Jaishankar said “these four major events showed how something faraway has a direct implication on the well-being of a nation.”

DHAKA, 10 June 2022, (TON): Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said “the government has set a target of collecting Tk4,33,000 crore as revenue in the 2022-23 fiscal year.”

He proposed the target while presenting the national budget in Parliament.

He added “according to this target, the National Board of Revenue will collect Tk3,70,000 crore. Another Tk63,000 crore will be collected from various other sources.”

DHAKA, 10 June 2022, (TON): The cross-border bus services between Bangladesh and India are scheduled to be resumed, over two years after the suspension of the services due to the pandemic.

Officials said “Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation is scheduled to resume the services at a ceremony at its Motijheel International bus depot at 7:30am.”

The authorities suspended the cross-border bus services in March 2020 after the outbreak of Covid-19 in Bangladesh.

Earlier, under the management of the BRTC, Shymoli NR Travels from Bangladesh ran bus services between the two countries on five routes.

DHAKA, 10 June 2022, (TON): Foreign minister AK Abdul Momen has sought stronger efforts to promote economic diplomacy, noting that attracting foreign direct investment has always been a cornerstone.

He said “as we have lost two years due to the pandemic, the time has come to further bolster our efforts.”

He added that their endeavour to effectively pursue economic diplomacy would also immensely contribute to the timely attainment of sustainable development goals.

Momen was speaking as chief guest at the inaugural session of the first Economic Diplomacy Week that began at the Foreign Service Academy in the capital.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in collaboration with the relevant ministries and divisions, is hosting the programme as the country seeks prosperity through economic diplomacy.

By Farzana Tamannur (TON Bangladesh)

On Dec 21, 2020, the U.S. Treasury Department declared sanctions on an elite Bangladesh paramilitary force, quoting “severe human rights violence.” It also sanctioned the present director of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and five ex- senior RAB officials, including a travel bar on Benazir Ahmed, now Bangladesh’s top police chief. (The United States furthermore issued sanctions on entities and persons in Myanmar, China, and North Korea.)

The new sanctions came on global Human Rights Day, and it marks the first time Washington ever sanctioned Dhaka, which it has depicted as a key partner. Though the United States likely wants to maintain a sturdy relationship with Bangladesh, the decision has already dealt a blow to bilateral tie. Some Bangladeshi officials have downplayed the effect of the sanctions, however others have slammed them.

Sanctioning the RAB makes sense from a human rights viewpoint: The force has carried out more than 1,200 extrajudicial killing and 170 enforced disappearance in the precedent two decades, according to Bangladeshi human rights group Odhikar. It makes less sense from a geopolitical viewpoint. The United States has stressed partnership with Bangladesh, suggesting a keenness to overlook its human rights record. A 2019 U.S. State Department paper identified area of prospective cooperation with Dhaka—from counter terrorism to trade.

In February, U.S. officials met in Washington with Bangladesh’s army chief, and then involved in a corruption scandal. At the time, a U.S. Army speaker said the two armies “share a close partnership.” And just last month, senior State Department official Kelly Keiderling visited Dhaka and spoke of a wish to develop the relationship. The sanctions came just a few weeks later.

One possibility is the Biden administration has decided to make Bangladesh a major target of its democracy promotion movement. (This would clarify Washington’s decision not to invite Dhaka to last week’s democracy summit.) However this would fly in the face of Keiderling’s recent comments, signifying the United States sees Bangladesh as lacking enough tactical value to warrant a close partnership.

U.S. sanctions might also be a shot across the bow to warn Bangladesh about the risks of its increasing relationship with China. But that is also unlikely given that sanctioning Dhaka might drive it closer to Beijing. Bangladesh presently seeks to balance its associations with China, the United States, and India. But it might be more receptive to Beijing’s overtures if Washington continues to take aim at its human rights record.

Washington's sanctions strategy often carries unseen agendas. When America imposed sanctions on the Soviet Union after it invaded Kabul, they were billed as part of a mission to rescue Afghanistan, but they were really intended to warn Moscow not to march into Iran.

Applying the similar tactic, Americans are giving Bangladesh's Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina two messages: (1 ) penalize the named officers, and (2) join the Quad. Hasina's failure to comply, particularly with the second demand, is likely to subject Bangladesh to more sanctions.

The U.S. steps might embarrass Hasina on world stage; however sanctions in general hardly ever achieve their stated goal. Often they do just the opposite — make the recipient stiffer. Hasina will definitely not put her police chief on trial, since such a step will open up a Pandora's Box, putting her administration and her political future in risk. Even a dumb person knows that the RAB did not act randomly without approval from the top.

To concede the U.S. demands will make Hasina look weak to her followers in addition to adversaries. A weak leader is despicable in Asia—and perhaps in other parts of the world, too— particularly if one fails to stand up to big bullies.

This leaves the United States with the only expectation that its secret policy to coerce Hasina into the Quad will thrive. The prime minister is less than likely to bend over backwards to please Washington, simply owing to her fear to look weak, if nothing else. Can she afford to be on the wrong side of both India — which is playing second fiddle to America— and the United States at the same time? Her records point out, she can.

The more likely clarification is the United States just sought to push Bangladesh on its human rights record, not give up on the association. As one former Dhaka-based U.S. diplomat put it, “sanctioning RAB might well have just been a low hanging fruit given long standing concern about its actions.” On January 2022, a State Department spokesperson insisted the United States still seeks cooperation, and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a call with his Bangladeshi counterpart, A.K. Abdul Momen.

But the damage is done. For Bangladesh, sanctioning the RAB is like an attack on an institute that has carried out triumphant counterterrorism and antinarcotics operations. In a perfect world, Dhaka would eradicate the RAB’s culture of impunity—resulting in the elimination of sanctions and a boost for U.S.-Bangladeshi relations. But actually, an increasingly undemocratic Dhaka is unlikely to rein the force in.

By TON Research Desk

The Death Rulings of Democratic Activists by the Myanmar Junta is an effort to quell the independent dissenting voices in Myanmar. Global anger and condemnation have grown up both locally and internationally over the Myanmar junta’s decision to execute a former lawmaker from ousted State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi’s party and a veteran democracy activist. It will be the country’s first judicial execution of political revolutionists in four decades.

The regime had permitted the orders to carry out the death sentences of four people, and the junta-controlled judiciary had already prohibited the appeals against the death sentences of these two men. The two were arrested late last year from their hideouts in Yangon and were given death decrees on terrorism charges in January by a military court for conceiving armed confrontation operations in Yangon.

One of them was jailed by the earlier army regime in 2008 for founding a covert youth organization for using guerrilla tactics to conduct subversive material against the then junta. He was elected to the Union Parliament in the 2015 general election representing the National League for Democracy (NLD).

The other is a leading member of the 88 Generation Students Group, which rose to prominence during the 1988 student uprising against the then junta. He was also jailed at that time for his anti-regime activism. The two other men were earlier sentenced to death for killing a woman who was an apparent military informer.

The four are the first to have their sentences approved among 114 prisoners including students and anti-coup activists two of whom are minors who have been condemned to death since the coup. These prisoners were subjected to unfair trials and denied their legal rights to counsel and to defend themselves, for their roles in the revolutionary movement against the junta.

On Monday last, global and Myanmar non-governmental organizations and civil society groups equally condemned the execution orders and called the regime for the four to an end to killing orders. There are voices from the United Nations, the international community, and Myanmar democratic forces against the junta’s decision and calls for it to be reversed.

The Myanmar military’s decision of death sentences and to proceed with the execution of two pro-democracy activists has disturbed the international community and Myanmar's democratic forces. As this is a blatant violation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to life, liberty, and security of person.

The death sentence imposition by the junta courts on democratic activists and other civilians is a clear violation of Myanmar’s existing laws as well as international laws. Exercising the judiciary lawlessly and with a grudge and resentment to uphold the death penalty is committing a grave crime.

The UN and other international organization along with the national unity government (NUG) announced that all verdicts handed down by the terrorist junta-controlled courts are invalid. The terrorist regime will be held fully responsible for any consequences. The national unity government (NUG) also warned that collaborators of the junta would be punished.

The United States strongly condemns the Burmese military regime’s reported plans to execute pro-democracy and opposition leaders, exemplifying the regime’s disregard for human rights and the rule of law, and urged to release of all those who were unfairly imprisoned.

The death penalty is normally upheld only after the final appeal to the president. This is also a time full of legal and political controversies. And thus this [the execution order] should be seriously considered, including the political consequences that the junta will face]. Personally, as a comrade who worked with him for a long time, and as we are fathers who have daughters, it dismays me.

Myanmar junta’s move towards executing two prominent political leaders will be like pouring gasoline on the fire of popular anti-military resistance in the country.

A junta council working to carry out an execution like this is an unforgivable act, and clear proof of utter disregard for the will of the international community who wish to return Myanmar to democracy, as well as to ASEAN who wishes to resolve the issue through the Five-Point Consensus.

The junta’s execution announcement was an attempt to challenge and destroy future national reconciliation, including the stability of the country. The world condemns in the strongest terms the decision announced by the military regime formed by the 1 February 2021 coup in Myanmar to execute four people.

To targets once again defenders of freedom. The violation of the de facto moratorium regarding the death sentence that has existed for more than 30 years in the country represents a major setback, while 113 death penalties have been arbitrarily imposed by military courts since the military coup. France reaffirms its constant opposition to capital punishment at all times and in all circumstances.”

It is really shocking that the Myanmar military will resume executions in the country. The death sentence has become one of many appalling ways the Myanmar military is attempting to spread fear and continue grave human rights violations, including lethal violence to target the peaceful protesters and other civilians among anyone who opposes the regime rule.