Shawdesh desk:

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen called on the Foreign Minister of Lao PDR Saleumxay Kommasith in Cambodia, on Saturday.

The meeting reviewed the whole gamut of the existing excellent bilateral relations.

During the meeting, Foreign Minister Momen invited Lao PDR to invest in different sectors, particularly in priority sectors in the Economic Zones, agriculture and ICT sectors of Bangladesh.

He also proposed the regular exchange of trade delegation and trade related offer in order to create opportunities and potentials for bilateral trade and investment which is essential for both countries.

Highlighting the need to further promote people-to-people contact between the two countries, Momen expressed happiness that a diplomat from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lao PDR participated in a short course organized by the Foreign Service Academy of Bangladesh, the first time ever such an exchange took place.

In this connection, Momen reiterated our offer for short training courses for twelve young diplomats (one from each ASEAN member state and two from the Secretariat) as well as the proposal for exchange of ten youths from Bangladesh to the ASEAN countries and ten youths from the ASEAN countries to Bangladesh under a Youth Exchange Program. In reply, Saleumxay admired the proposal of Bangladesh and wished to exchange the best knowledge and practices.

Momen urged the Foreign Minister of Lao PDR to play a more proactive role in bringing a sustainable solution to the protracted Rohingya crisis by initiating a speedy, safe and dignified repatriation of the forcibly displaced people back to their motherland Myanmar.

He requested Lao PDR to exert its friendly influence on Myanmar to take its citizens back to Myanmar. He also sought the support of Lao PDR in favour of Bangladesh’s candidacy as a Sectoral Dialogue Partner (SDP) of ASEAN.

On the other hand, appreciating the tremendous socio-economic growth in Bangladesh in the last decade, the Foreign Minister of Lao PDR explicitly showed his strong willingness to strengthen trade and investment ties with Bangladesh.

Momen took the opportunity to encourage Lao PDR for importing Bangladeshi products including electronic equipment, pharmaceuticals, cements, jute and jute products, ceramic and leather goods to meet the local demand.

Both the Ministers also discussed the possibility of a High-level visit between the two countries and the Foreign Minister of Lao PDR readily accepted the invitation.