DATELINE DHAKA: Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on December 5, 2021, stressed the need for building a peaceful world by abandoning arms races and urged the global community to use their resources in ensuring universal sustainable development. “At this critical juncture in the world, I urge people to use their resources to achieve universal sustainable development without spending resources on the arms races. Let’s take action and commit to universal peace,” she said in her address at the closing ceremony of the two-day “World Peace Conference-2021” being held in Dhaka, joining virtually from her official Ganabhaban residence.

A 16-point Dhaka Declaration was adopted at the conference. Noting the coronavirus pandemic has plunged the entire world into a new crisis, she said: “This crisis has proven that not one of us is isolated. There’s no alternative to building an accountable world order based on partnership to live peacefully in this world.”

Quoting from the speech Bangabandhu, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman delivered while receiving the award in Dhaka on May 23, 1973 Sheikh Hasina said: “Let me mention here that world peace has been one of the fundamental principles of my philosophy of life. I’ve always been with the oppressed, the exploited and the peace-loving and freedom-loving people in any part of the world. We want peace to reign in every part of the globe. We want it to consolidate.”