Foreign minister Dr Dipu Moni yesterday said Bangladesh has been a major contributor to UN efforts in the maintenance of international peace and security, besides setting UN norms and standards on issues ranging from development to trade to human rights.

Addressing a function to mark the 35 years of UN in Bangladesh at a city hotel yesterday, the foreign minister reminded that this has not come without a price and said, so far, we have lost 98 heroic sons of the soil who laid down their lives in the service of international peace and security under UN.

Paying homage to their memories, she said their supreme sacrifice has made our resolve even stronger to work with the global community in making this planet a better place for us and for our future generations. "Bangladesh's role in UN peacekeeping had not only brought prestige for Bangladesh but had also honoured the United Nations", Dipu Moni said citing the US President Barack Obama. The US president made the comment last September in a meeting in New York when he invited heads of ten top peacekeeper providing countries.

I Dipu Moni expressed her gratitude to UN for its role to make 21 February as the International Mother Language Day which is celebrated around the world paying respect to the memories of our language martyrs. Speaking at the function, Renata Dessallien, UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, reaffirmed the UN's full commitment to support Bangladesh in consolidating democracy and the Millennium Development Goals. "We stand ready and will do our utmost to respond to the needs of the government and the people of Bangladesh", she said marking the 35 years of UN in Bangladesh and the 64th Anniversary of the UN.

On 17 September 1974, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution admitting Bangladesh into the UN . Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, addressed the UN General Assembly as the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh. In his speech to the UN General Assembly, the former Prime Minister said: "The noble ideals enshrined in the UN Charter are the very ideals for which millions of our people have made the supreme sacrifice. The Bengali nation fully commits itself to the building of a world order, in which the aspirations of all men for peace and justice will be realized".

A release of the UN said Bangladesh has demonstrated its deep commitment to international peace and cooperation in many ways. It was Bangladesh that initiated and coordinated the adoption of the Declaration and Programme of Action for a Culture of Peace in 1999 at the 54th session of the UN General Assembly. Bangladesh was elected for the second time to the UN Security Council for the term 2000-2001 in recognition of the international community's trust and confidence in the country's role in the maintenance of international peace and security.

-The Independent