Dhaka, Aug. 9 -- Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, at the 29th meeting of ASEAN on Friday urged the western leaders to impose tough economic sanctions on Myanmar in order to speed up the repatriation of Rohingyas. Economic sanctions and restrictions on the arm supplies to the military of Myanmar by the western nations would be a very effective way to force it to take back its Rohingya citizens, but the question is whether the western countries are ready to take such steps at the urging of Bangladesh when it is suffering from its own confused foreign policy, lack of public trust and poor human rights records? Bangladesh's efforts would inevitably turn out to be meaningless.

Soon after Russia invaded Ukrai...