Former prime minister of New Zealand James Bolger said there was a scope for more university scholarships for Bangladeshi students to study in New Zealand, with a view towards benefitting both parties.
“One area where I do believe we can see greater cooperation (between New Zealand and Bangladesh) is in university scholarships for Bangladeshis to come and study in New Zealand. Your students get to learn in very good universities, and our system benefits from having a more diverse student body,” Bolger said in an interview.
Bolger, who was twice elected prime minister of New Zealand in the 90s, was in Dhaka last week to gather support for his country’s bid to be elected as one of the 10 rotating members of the UN Security Council for 2015-16, in his new role as a special envoy of the current New Zealand premier John Key.
The vote to elect the 10 new rotating members of the Security Council for 2015-16 will be held in the UN General Assembly later this year.
New Zealand, according to Bolger, will be standing on a platform that reflects their position as a country close to the emerging nations of the Asia Pacific, but sharing good, established relations with the West.
“The UN was of course founded in the aftermath of World War II, and as such it still reflects the world as it was back then. Hence, we are grouped with ‘Western Europe and others’ and our nomination comes from that group, even though these days we are probably closer in terms of our dealings as a nation to Asia Pacific,” he said, adding that it would allow them to play a “balancing” role between the two groups.
Bolger also said New Zealand would look to use their place in the UNSC to push for reforms to the UN system, but cautioned that this would take time, and could only happen “incrementally”. But he sees the UN as still the best forum for the world to come together and tackle problems multilaterally, such as climate change.