Bangladesh recalls ambassador from Myanmar

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DHAKA (Reuters) -Bangladesh has recalled its ambassador from Myanmar, a Bangladeshi foreign ministry official said on Thursday, after it acknowledged opening a communications line with a rebel army fighting its neighbour’s military junta.

Monowar Hossain, who had been serving in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw since mid-2023, was told to return to Dhaka with immediate effect, said the official, describing it as an “administrative decision” without giving further reasons.

Relations between Bangladesh and Myanmar have been strained by the Rohingya refugee crisis and border security concerns.

A Myanmar junta spokesperson was not available for comment.

More than 1.2 million Rohingya are sheltering in Bangladesh, with the U.N. warning that widespread hunger in western Rakhine state could trigger fresh displacement. Over 130,000 people are thought to have crossed in the past year, Bangladesh says.

Bangladesh’s National Security Adviser Khalilur Rahman said last week that Dhaka has opened informal communication channels with the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group active in Rakhine, to maintain border stability.

Dhaka also remains engaged with the Myanmar junta to pursue a long-term solution to the Rohingya crisis, Rahman said, including potential support for a proposed U.N.-led humanitarian corridor in Rakhine.

But Bangladesh’s army opposes that.

“The army will not be involved in any activity that compromises the country’s security,” Colonel Shafiqul Islam, a senior Bangladesh army official, told reporters this week, of the aid plan.

(Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)