Information and Broadcasting Minister Zahir Uddin Swapon on Thursday said late president Ziaur Rahman had built friends everywhere without creating any enemies in line with domestic and global realities.
He said the current Bangladesh government, led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, follows Zia's non-aligned foreign policy based on the SAARC vision and the pursuit of multilateral interests.
The minister made the remarks while chairing a discussion meeting at the auditorium of the Press Institute Bangladesh (PIB) in the capital in the morning.
PIB and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting organised the discussion titled "Ziaur Rahman's Independent Non-Aligned Diplomacy in the Present Context" marking the 45th martyrdom anniversary of Ziaur Rahman, Bir Uttam.
Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister and BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir attended the programme as the chief guest.
Analyzing Bangladesh's position in the global economy and trade, the minister said: "The current government has to run the state and economy standing on some unavoidable factors. China and India are our principal sources of imports, while America and Europe are the main destinations of ready-made garment exports, the Middle East is the primary source of remittances, and for energy and power security we depend on Qatar and Russia's billion-dollar nuclear power plant project.”
“In this reality, we have to adopt an independent policy capable of assembling or coordinating all these contradictory elements together," he added.
