Bangladesh sincere in fighting terrorism

He was speaking as chief guest at a function organised by the UN agencies in Bangladesh at Sonargaon Hotel in the city to mark the 60th anniversary of the world body.

The president said Bangladesh is an ardent and active proponent of UN's call for preservation and promotion of international peace and security,

He quoted UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as saying, "Bangladesh is a model member of the UN, providing leadership amongst the least developed countries and in the general assembly and other forum, and contributing substantially to peacekeeping and humanitarian operation."

The president underscored the need for strengthening the United Nations through reforms.

“We must strengthen the UN through reforms. The UN must be provided with adequate resources it needs to function effectively. We must ensure that UN's decisions result in actions to meet the expectations of our peoples, our nations and our world," he added.

In a message on the UN Day, Kofi Annan said the United Nations must reflect this new age, and respond to its challenges including first and foremost, the knowledge that hundreds of millions of people are left defenceless against hunger, disease and environment degradation, even though the world has means to rescue them.

Speaking at the function, Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan said in order to remain relevant in a world where nations are increasingly judged by the yardstick of democracy and good governance, it is also important that the forum where international standards are set adheres to democratic practices and strengthens internal oversight and ethics in its functioning and operations.

He said a bitter race for nuclear weapons supremacy has kept the global peace hanging in the balance.

Despite everything, the UN has kept on working with its mission to serve the humanity, he added.

"Our commitment to UN peacekeeping is unflinching. Over the past two decades, we have been involved in 28 peacekeeping operations across four continents. Currently we are participating in 12 missions out of 18 ongoing UN missions," said the foreign minister.

He said Bangladesh has been among the top two contributors of troops and other personnel to UN peacekeeping operations for some time now.

UN Resident Coordinator Jorgen Lissner in his speech mentioned that Bangladesh rose from the ashes of genocide and paid a tremendous price in human lives for its nationhood and independence in 1971.

At the function, Unicef Representative Louis-Georges Arsenault introduced a film excerpt from the 'Concert for Bangladesh' by the great Beatle singer George Harrison at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1971.

A DVD on the concert has also been released for the first time, he said, adding that the concert raised money for millions of refugees forced to escape their war torn country.