Bangladesh
Bangladesh-Sri Lanka Bangladesh seeks Sri Lanka's cooperation in Rohingya repatriation
Dhaka, March 20: Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen has sought Sri Lanka's active co-operation in repatriating the displaced Rohingya people of Myanmar. The Prime Minister of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa assured full cooperation in this regard. He also assured the Human Rights Council of strong support for the Bangladeshi candidate for 2023-25.
The Foreign Minister met Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa at the Sonargaon Hotel on Friday (March 19th) afternoon, according to a statement from the Foreign Ministry.
The Foreign Minister sought the support of Sri Lanka for the post of Regional Director of the World Health Organization's Southeast Asia Regional Office for 2023. Mahinda Rajapaksa mentioned that Sri Lanka has strong support in this regard.
Dr. Momen requested the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka to implement some of the agreements and memoranda of understanding signed earlier with Sri Lanka and assured him that he would try to implement them.
Apart from this, various issues including enhancement of communication between the two countries, launch of coastal waterways, preferential trade agreements, bilateral investment development and security agreements, export of Bangladeshi medicines to Sri Lanka were also discussed.
At this time, requests were made to build permanent embassies of Sri Lanka in Bangladesh like Turkey, the United States and India.
In response to a question, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka said that wearing a burqa was not banned for Muslim women in that country. Despite calls from some quarters for a ban on the burqa, the Sri Lankan government has yet to comply. Rajapaksa also said that there were rumors in the media that dead Muslims were being cremated in Corona, Sri Lanka, adding that 39 Muslims had been buried recently in accordance with Muslim rites.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md. Shahriar Alam and Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen were present during the meeting.
