State minister for foreign affairs Md Shahriar Alam on Tuesday said that Bangladesh government would take appropriate steps if any foreign diplomat crossed the boundary.

He described Japanese ambassador to Bangladesh Ito Naoki’s recent comments on Bangladesh’s election ‘unexpected’ and said Bangladesh will convey its message to Japan regarding the matter.

On Monday, ambassador Naoki said that he heard about the example of ‘ballot box stuffing’ and some police officers stuffed the ballot box the previous night which is something he did never hear in any other country.

The state minister said that the Japanese side did never raise such issue in the last four years in any bilateral meeting or any level discussion.

Even it was not mentioned in the statement issued by the Japanese Embassy after 2018 elections, Alam said.

Recalling 2018 election, ambassador Naoki said that the Japanese Embassy in Dhaka had issued a statement of concern which was very unusual for his country though it was focused more on violence.

The state minister hoped that commonsense would prevail in the days to come and diplomats would act accordingly.

‘When we will see it’s crossing the boundary, we are saying very clearly and loudly that we will take appropriate steps,’ he said.

He said that the government was committed to hold a free and fair election and the Election Commission was working to that end.

Japanese ambassador to Bangladesh Ito Naoki on Monday said that they expected that the next national election in Bangladesh would be held in a ‘free and fair’ manner with the participation of all major political parties.

‘We expect the next election will be a better one. Free and fair elections need to be done here. That’s my strong hope,’ he said while responding to a question at an event titled Meet the Ambassador held in a Dhaka hotel.

At the same time, the envoy said, this is something that the political parties should decide but the expectation is that the election will be a participatory one and the major political parties will participate in it.