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DHAKA: Bangladesh will ask for Saudi expertise and partnership in water and forestation projects addressing the impacts of climate change, the environment minister said on Tuesday.

The South Asian country is highly vulnerable to climate change, especially in its coastal regions, which face severe drinking water shortages due to rapidly rising sea levels. Saltwater intrusion has salinized both surface water and groundwater, leaving many coastal districts without access to safe drinking water for several months each year.

To address the situation, the Bangladeshi government is planning to introduce a system of rainwater harvesting plants in two coastal districts, Khulna and Satkhira.

Syeda Rizwana Hasan, adviser for environment, forest, and climate change to the interim Bangladeshi government — effectively serving as the environment minister — told Arab News that it would be the first project of its kind by a Bangladeshi administration.

“We would like to see if there is any possibility of getting into a partnership with the Kingdom of ����ֱ�� on this. If it materializes and we get into some partnership, then we will be able to supply potable water to no less than 10 million people,” Hasan said, as she departed Dhaka to attend the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s Water Ministers Meeting in Jeddah.

����ֱ�� has developed expertise in rainwater harvesting due to its arid climate, scarce freshwater resources, and growing water demand from urbanization and agriculture.

While rainfall in most regions is irregular, the Kingdom has been employing traditional and modern solutions to capture and utilize rainwater effectively.

“����ֱ�� is supplying water to its people, operating in a very difficult water system. It knows how to overcome those barriers,” Hasan said.

Another area where Bangladesh wants to seek partnership and support is related to the Saudi and Middle East Green Initiatives — one of the Kingdom’s flagship environmental and sustainability programs under its Vision 2030.

The initiatives, which target planting billions of trees across ����ֱ�� and the region over the coming decades and rehabilitate millions of hectares of degraded land, are expected to position the Kingdom as a leader in environmental stewardship.

The Bangladeshi minister will also explore potential cooperation on carbon mitigation, in which the Kingdom could support forest projects in Bangladesh.

“We know that the Kingdom of ����ֱ�� is planning to green itself,” Hasan said. “In that process of greening, we are trying to find out whether the Bangladesh Forest Department, with extensive experience in plantation, can be of any assistance, technical assistance to ����ֱ��.”

MOSCOW: Moscow on Tuesday doused hopes of a swift meeting of the Russian and US foreign ministers to prepare for a speedy summit between their leaders over the Ukraine war.
Following a phone call last week, the Russian and US leaders Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump announced they would meet in Budapest for talks on resolving the war in Ukraine, triggered by Moscow’s February 2022 all-out offensive.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US counterpart Marco Rubio spoke on Monday to discuss preparations for the summit, and are expected to meet in person to finalize details.
Trump said the meeting with Putin could take place within two weeks, though that timeline appears to be slipping away.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Tuesday it was “premature to talk about the schedule” of the preparatory Lavrov-Rubio meeting.
“Neither before the phone call nor during yesterday’s call was the meeting specifically raised,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Russian state news agencies.
“Any such significant contact should be properly prepared,” Ryabkov said, adding that “a ‘homework’ phase” must be first completed.
Trump, who previously claimed he could settle the Ukraine war in a matter of hours, has shown frustration with both Moscow and Kyiv over the failure to broker peace.
Putin has rejected multiple calls for a ceasefire and stuck to a list of hard-line demands that Kyiv sees as unacceptable.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is pushing to attend the summit in Budapest, has ruled out territorial concessions.
Several rounds of direct negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian teams in Istanbul have yielded nothing beyond prisoner exchanges and the repatriation of the bodies of soldiers killed in combat.
A previous summit between Putin and Trump in Alaska ended early with no breakthrough toward a peace deal.
Ukraine says a meeting between Putin and Zelensky is needed to make progress, but the Kremlin has ruled out talks with the Ukrainian leader until a peace deal is practically agreed.