Bangladesh remains in a good position with workable human resources, food production, and geographical location amid the Russia-Ukraine war, speakers at a roundtable said on Wednesday.

Despite these advantages, the country has fallen back in the last decade and a half in its own energy exploration due to a lack of a sustainable policy, they said.

Speakers made the remarks in a discussion, titled “A World in turmoil: The fallout from the Ukraine Conflict,” jointly organized by Cosmos Foundation and Bangladesh Institute of Peace and Security Studies (BIPSS) at a Dhaka hotel.

Enayetullah Khan, chairman of Cosmos Foundation, and Major General (Retd) Muniruzzaman, president of BIPSS, moderated the program. Md Touhid Hossain, former foreign secretary, Zafar Sobhan, editor of Dhaka Tribune, Brigadier General (retired) Shakhawat Hossain, Umme Salma Tarin, assistant professor of the department of international relations of Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP), and Parvez Karim Abbasi, assistant professor of the department of economics of East West University, participated in the roundtable, among others.

Enayetullah Khan said Bangladesh has to enhance its energy exploration along with a diversification of policy for the growth of conventional and renewable energy sectors.

“If Bangladesh cannot expand gas extraction from domestic sources within a short time, there will be great concern about foreign exchange reserves due to big payments on oil and gas imports, ” he added.

Bangladesh’s agriculture sector will be affected by the Russia-Ukraine war as a big portion of fertilizer imports from Russia and Belarus have been blocked due to the turmoil, said Enayetullah Khan.

Besides, the Rooppur nuclear power plant, a project of 2400MW of electricity generation from atomic energy, has also fallen into uncertainty due to the Ukraine conflict.

Muniruzzaman said the Ukraine war has created a security and energy crisis in the world, and no one can predict now when it will end.

NATO expansion is creating a threat for Russia, while the war in Ukraine has led to humanitarian concerns due to the emerging food crisis and soaring energy prices, he said.

“We have primarily identified three dimensions of the Ukraine turmoil – food, energy and finance. As countries around the world are entirely connected with each other, every country is affected by the consequences of the war,” Muniruzzaman said.

Touhid Hossain said Bangladesh has to remain neutral considering the sensitivity of the current global situation and favouring any particular country will be a mistake.

“The world never remains peaceful as a whole; we have witnessed several wars in the world during the last half a century, in Vietnam, Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan and other places,” he added.

Umme Salma Tarin said the world is being polarized between different major powers. Bangladesh needs a smart strategy and partnership to ensure security and financial benefit.

The Ukraine war has created security concerns in Europe and many EU countries have increased their military expenditures by more than 2% of their GDP, she said.

“Thirty per cent of Ukraine’s industries depend on Russia while the EU is heavily dependent on Russian gas, oil and coal energy. So the war has affected both Russia and Europe,” Salma Tarin said.

Parvez Karim said Russia is third in oil production and second in gas stock in the world; and Ukraine and Russia contributed one-third of wheat in the global market prior to the war.

“The turmoil in Ukraine is affecting the whole world and may cause famine in some regions,” he said.