Australia wants to expand relations with Bangladesh

Australia wants to extend cooperation with Bangladesh in different sectors such as trade and investment, agriculture, sports, and power and energy, climate change, and human resource development, the foreign ministry says.

Australia will also extend different training offers for Bangladesh in a wide range of issue areas including counterterrorism, defence, and maritime security.

These issues were discussed during the 2nd Foreign Office Consultations between the countries on Tuesday at the State Guest House Meghna in Dhaka.

Deputy Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Penny Williams led the Australian side while Secretary (Asia & Pacific) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Mahbub Uz Zaman led the Bangladesh side.

Representatives from different ministries and divisions such as Ministry of Power and Energy, Ministry of Home, Economic Relations Division, Youth and Sports, Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), and Police Headquarters (HQs) were also present.

The foreign ministry said Australia will also support Bangladesh's push “for safe and dignified return of displaced people from Myanmar which is an essential component of durable solution of Rohingya crisis.”

During the discussion, the Australian side said that Australia has lifted air cargo restriction for Bangladesh but cargoes originating from Bangladesh need to transit through designated points.

Australia committed to continue its development assistance for Bangladesh and continue to increase the number of scholarships for Bangladesh.

Australia offered 217 scholarships for different categories and fields for Bangladeshi students during 2018.

During the meeting Bangladesh proposed four Memorandums of Understanding or MoUs on four different areas of cooperation such as agriculture, promotion and protection of investment, sports and power sector and Australian side assured for their consideration of the MoUs.

Both the sides expressed their willingness to work together for strengthening and deepening the bilateral relations so happily exists between the two countries since the independence of Bangladesh in 1971.