Shawdesh desk:

Foreign Minister AK Momen held bilateral meetings with his counterparts from Austria, Kyrgyz Republic and Turkey during his one-day visit to Turkey on Saturday for attending the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

In the bilateral meeting with Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Foreign Minister of Turkey, Dr Momen discussed the issue of Rohingya crisis in details, and Turkey assured to continue to support the cause of the Rohingyas. At the invitation of Foreign Minister Momen, Turkish Foreign Minister informed that he would soon visit Bangladesh at a mutually convenient time. It was also agreed between the two Foreign Ministers that the Foreign Ministries of the two countries would work together for a bilateral visit of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Bangladesh within this year.

When Foreign Minister Momen met Alexander Schallenberg, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Austria, the two Ministers discussed the issue of joint celebration of the golden jubilee of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The Prime Ministers of Bangladesh and Austria had a telephone meeting last month, and the two Foreign Ministers discussed ways for further augmenting the bilateral relations.

Foreign Minister Momen also had a meeting with Ruslan Kazakbaev Aitbaevich, the Foreign Minister of Kyrgyz Republic, on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum.

Foreign Minister Momen flagged the potential of increasing trade between the two countries, and assured his Kyrgyz counterpart that Bangladesh would be willing to work together with Kyrgyz Republic in the coming days to increase relations between these two countries of ancient ties – in the areas of trade, connectivity, and people to people contact.

Kairat Sarybay, Executive Director of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA) also called on Foreign Minister Momen on the margins of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum. During the meeting, the Executive Director of CICA explained the recent activities of the inter-government organisation.

Momen emphasised on the importance of a peaceful and stable Asia for a prosperous Asia. He was of the view that the role of CICA, where Bangladesh is a Member, should play an active role in this regard.