1. Country: Bangladesh Committee: United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Topic B: Security Concerns in the Middle East and the Southeast Asia Since September 2001, the United States has increased focus on radical Islamist and terrorist groups in Southeast Asia, particularly those in the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore. Southeast Asia has been a base for terrorist operations. Al Qaeda penetrated the region by establishing local cells, training Southeast Asians in its camps in Afghanistan, and by financing and cooperating with indigenous radical Islamist groups. Indonesia and the southern Philippines have been particularly vulnerable to penetration by Islamic terrorist groups. While there has been significant anti-Western terrorist activity in Southeast Asia, counter-terror measures in recent years appear to have significantly degraded anti-Western terrorist groups ability to launch attacks against Western targets in the region. U.S. attention in the region has been focused on radical Islamist groups, particularly the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist network that are known or alleged to have ties to the Al Qaeda network. Combating anti-American terrorism in Southeast Asia presents the Obama Administration and Congress with a delicate foreign policy problem, though not of the highest priority given U.S. engagement in places such as Afghanistan and Iraq. Southeast Asian governments have to balance these despite mutual interests in combating terrorism with the help of security concerns with domestic political considerations. Although proponents of violent, radical Islam remain a very small minority in Southeast Asia, many governments view increased American pressure and military presence in their region with concern because of the political sensitivity of the issue with both mainstream Islamic and secular nationalist groups. Bangladeshs engagement as a part of its planned Look East policy is, however, more recent. She has evidently different interests and priorities which seem to depend on a multiplicity of factors such as geography (proximity to or common boundary with Southeast Asia), level (also perceived potential) of trade and investment, diaspora, needs of maritime or energy security etc. Bangladesh has generally admired the success of ASEAN, especially in comparison to SAARC, and should follow, in some way or the other, the steps taken by ASEAN countries towards building infrastructure, poverty alleviation, tourism and overall regionalism, though SAARC has been in existence for a much shorter period. Bangladesh, which is seen as a land bridge between SAARC and ASEAN, has enormous geographic advantages for its proximity to Myanmar and to other South East Asian nations to promote inter regional economic, political, and security cooperation. Once connected via the Asian Highway and Trans-Asian Railway, South and South East Asian nations will be using Bangladesh as the main transit point to increase economic interactions amongst themselves. Bangladesh, with appropriate policies and infrastructures in place, will be playing pivotal role in defining the direction of economic relations between the two emerging regional groups. Bangladesh can use the platform of ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) as a vital instrument for the realisation of its aims and objectives to find common ground for achieving mutual economic benefit. Bangladesh's presence in the ASEAN Regional Forum

2. has provided it with an international focus as a voice for managing security issues in the volatile region. As an explicit goal of Bangladeshi foreign policy has been to seek close relations with the states of Asia-Pacific, the government should pursue the expansion of cooperation among the nations of Asia pacific bringing the process of betterment of 160 million inhabitants of the country.