Hasan meets his Belgian, Czech, Swedish, Vietnamese counterparts

Foreign minister Dr Hasan Mahmud today held separate bilateral meetings with his Belgian, Czech, Swedish, Vietnamese counterparts on the sideline of 3rd Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum being held in Brussels.

During the meeting with Belgium Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Affairs and Foreign Trade Hadja Lahbib, Mahmud thanked her government to provide continuous support in the development journey of Bangladesh, a foreign ministry press release said here.

Lahbib expressed keen interest to further strengthen the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Belgium.

Vietnamese foreign minister Bui Thanh Son handed over Vietnam Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s formal invitation to Bangladesh premier Sheikh Hasina for paying an official bilateral visit to Hanoi.

At the meeting, the Vietnamese foreign minister also invited Mahmud to visit Hanoi to further strengthen the 50 year-long friendly relations between Bangladesh and Vietnam.

Mahmud also held bilateral talks with Czech Republic foreign minister Jan Lipavský and Swedish foreign minister Tobias Billström.

During the separate meetings, Bangladesh foreign minister discussed on the way how to further expand trade and investment cooperation with all the four countries.

Noting that repartition of the forcefully displaced people to Rakhine is the only solution of the Rohingya crisis, Mahmud urged all the nations to mount pressure on Myanmar regarding the matter.

The foreign minister will return to Dhaka Sunday evening.

High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice President of the European Commission Josep Borrell chaired the forum.

The EU Indo-Pacific Ministerial Forum brought together the EU and its Member States with countries from the East coast of Africa in the West to the Pacific islands in the East.