Bangladesh has been elected as a member of Executive Council of Unesco's Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) for the term 2023-25 receiving the highest number of votes, the foreign ministry said.
The election was held at the Unesco Headquarters in Paris during the 32nd Assembly of the IOC on Wednesday.
"Bangladesh's election in this council manifests global recognition to Bangladesh's initiatives, actions and contributions to the multilateral fora to maintain a safe and secured maritime regime and ocean governance in the world," the foreign ministry said.
Bangladesh's growing engagement in the maritime issues has prompted Bangladesh to float its candidature in the IOC Executive Council.
"It is committed to contributing to the existing critical needs of IOC concerning its wider global presence, increased budgetary allocation and value addition through fostering a technology-based oceanographic multilateral ecosystem."
In the last couple of years Bangladesh has hosted a number of meetings on the maritime issues.
Most recently it has hosted 9th IOCINDIO meeting in Dhaka in March 2023 and the Indian Ocean Conference in May 2023.
Therefore, Bangladesh's election in the council would help promote its maritime diplomacy in the UN system while securing benefits for this institution and strengthening partnership with other nations, read the statement.
Bangladesh has also registered its voice to change the status IOC Sub-Committee for Central Indian Ocean to IOC Sub-Commission to be known as IOCINDIO which is expected to be approved during the current session of the 32nd IOC Assembly (21-30 June 2023).
Leader of the Bangladesh delegation Rear Admiral (Retd) Khurshed Alam expressed hope that this would be formally approved through a resolution within current session of 32nd IOC Assembly.
