PM for strengthening Bangladesh-Kuwait ties

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has stressed the strengthening Bangladesh-Kuwait ties.

She also urged Muslim nations to take a united stand on the current crisis in Gaza.

She said this when Deputy Chief of Staff of the Kuwaiti Armed forces, Lt Gen Khaled Mohammed Al-Kheder, called on her at her office on Wednesday.

The prime minister’s Press Secretary AKM Shameem Chowdhury, told reporters that Hasina had described the Bangladesh-Kuwait bilateral relations as “very good”.

She recalled the then Kuwait Emir’s visit to Bangladesh in 1974 and taking Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to the OIC summit.

After that visit, the relation between the countries began to develop, Chowdhury quoted Hasina as saying.

During the Awami League’s 1996-01 term, the Middle Eastern country provided Bangladesh $200 million at a time when the foreign reserve was low.

She said the two countries have to increase bilateral visits among their armed forces personnel to “enhance ties between the armed forces of the two brotherly countries”.

Hasina said Kuwait armed forces personnel could receive higher education and training at various renowned institutions in Bangladesh.

Let Gen Al-Kheder expressed gratitude for the Bangladesh Army’s assistance in mine sweeping operations after the Gulf War.

He said the armed forces personnel in Kuwait were working very skilfully.

"We are very pleased," Chowdhury quoted him as telling the prime minister.

Al-Kheder said the armed forces personnel would remain in Kuwait as long as his country needed them.

Kuwait’s ambassador to Bangladesh, Ali Ahmed Ebrahim, was present at the meeting.