Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman secured renewed diplomatic and legal backing from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday, using a high-level summit at the COP31 climate conference in Antalya to press for international accountability and the sustainable repatriation of over 1.3 million Rohingya refugees.
During their 30-minute bilateral meeting, Prime Minister Rahman commended President Erdoğan for standing as one of the persecuted Rohingya community’s staunchest advocates, expressing deep gratitude for Türkiye’s on-the-ground humanitarian aid and its “firm solidarity” with the Rohingya case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), where Myanmar faces formal state-level genocide proceedings.
Prime Minister Rahman underscored that multilateral coordination remains essential to resolving the protracted crisis, emphasizing to President Erdoğan that Türkiye’s proactive leadership across global institutions—most notably within the United Nations and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)—is “crucial to ensuring the safe, dignified and sustainable repatriation of Rohingyas to their homeland.”
Rahman urged Ankara to sustain this diplomatic momentum across international forums, warning that Bangladesh cannot shoulder the humanitarian and security burdens alone as frontline settlements face growing resource shortages and regional funding cuts.
The bilateral exchange reflects Dhaka’s broader push to mobilize powerful allies as conditions in Myanmar’s Arakan State deteriorate.
Accompanied by Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman and State Minister-1 for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir, Prime Minister Rahman linked the refugee emergency to wider geopolitical imperatives, securing Erdoğan’s commitment to keep the plight of the Rohingya at the forefront of the Islamic world’s agenda.
Speaking after the talks, Kobir reaffirmed that rallying unified global support for Rohingya rights and repatriation remains central to Bangladesh’s high-level engagements at the COP31 World Leaders’ Summit.
UNB
