Japanese PM arrives Sept 6

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is due to arrive in Dhaka on Sept 6 on his first visit to Bangladesh.

His two-day programme follows Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to Japan on May 25-28, when both sides said Dhaka and Tokyo had embarked on “a new era of relationship”.

Abe would be the first Japanese prime minister visiting Dhaka in the last 14 years.

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Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori was the last Japanese premier to visit Bangladesh in August 2000 during the erstwhile Hasina government.

During Hasina’s May visit, Abe confirmed he would come to Dhaka. The date is finalised now, a senior foreign ministry official told bdnews24.com.

“The visit is significant for us,” the official said. The foreign ministry is yet to make any formal announcement.

Japan established its diplomatic ties in February 1972, soon after Bangladesh’s independence, and quickly became the country’s largest bilateral development partner.

Its assistance comes regularly as grant, aid, technical assistance, and soft loans. The total grants and aid reached $11 billion last year.

During Hasina’s visit, both leaders launched the “Japan-Bangladesh comprehensive partnership” and later, in a joint statement, affirmed their commitment to further strengthen bilateral cooperation “by elevating the friendly relationship to a new partnership”.

Abe pledged to provide nearly $6 billion assistance for the next four to five years starting this year.

They also agreed that they would strengthen policy dialogue so as to deepen cooperation in an evolving global security environment.