Bangladesh and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) will sign two documents on defence and ICT cooperation during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) from October 17-18.
The prime minister will leave for Riyadh Tuesday afternoon by a special Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight, reports UNB.
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali briefed the media about the visit at the state guesthouse PadmaON Monday afternoon.
During the visit, two instruments — a memorandum of understanding (MoU) ondefence cooperation and an MoU on ICT cooperation — would be signed between
Bangladesh and KSA, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told a press conference at the Foreign Ministry here this afternoon.
Sheikh Hasina will meet with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in Riyadh tomorrow.
Ali said the issue of safe repatriation of Rohingyas will also be discussed during the meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the Saudi king.
Apart from the defence cooperation and Rohingya matters, issues related to labour welfare, promotion of bilateral trade and investment, development cooperation and greater unity and prosperity of Muslim Ummah are expected to be discussed during the meeting of the two leaders, he said.
The foreign minister hoped that the visit will further strengthen the relations between Bangladesh and KSA in the days to come.
She will inaugurate the newly constructed building of the Bangladesh Embassy in Riyadh in the afternoon on the same day.
The Prime Minister will leave Riyadh for Medina on tomorrow night after attending a business seminar arranged by the Council of Saudi Chambers.
She will offer fatehah at the grave of great Prophet Hazrat Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him).
The Prime Minister will then go to Makkah from Medina and offer Umrah at night.
She will lay the foundation stone of Bangladesh Consulate in Jeddah on Thursday.
On Friday morning, the Prime Minister will leave Jeddah for Dhaka.
During her visit, Sheikh Hasina will highlight Bangladesh's socioeconomic development to the Saudi government, said the Foreign Minister.
Foreign Minister Ali, among others, will accompany the Prime Minister during the visit.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam and Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque were present at the press briefing.
On Saturday US President Donald Trump said his administration won a $110 billion military order from Saudi Arabia and that the deal, combined with Saudi commitments to invest heavily in the United States, was worth hundreds of thousands of US jobs.
Amid pressure from the public to cancel the deal over Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s disappearance at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Trump said: “If they don’t buy it from us, they’re going to buy it from Russia or they’re going to buy it from China. Think of that, $110 billion. All they are going to do is give it to other countries, and I think that would be very foolish.”
On April 16, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended the concluding ceremony of a Saudi-led joint grand military exercise named "Gulf Shield-1" in the kingdom's eastern province of al-Jubail.
She attended the function at the invitation of the Saudi king, and the custodian of the two holy mosques, Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, as the parades of armed forces of 24 participating countries including Bangladesh was featured in the ceremony.
The prime minister’s press secretary Ihsanul Karim said the Saudi king greeted Sheikh Hasina on arrival at the venue as he oversaw the conclusion of the military drill in the presence of a number of leaders of friendly countries which took part in the month-long exercise.
Saudi Arabia organized the drill to boost defence cooperation and coordination with friendly countries to protect the Gulf region's security and peace through enhanced military readiness and to ensure global peace in general.
Spokesman for the military exercise Brigadier General Abdullah Al-Subaie on April 14 said the Saudi defence ministry organized the drill with participants of land, air and naval forces from 24 countries.
The participating countries were USA, the UK, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, Sudan, Mauritania, Malaysia, Pakistan, Chad, Djibouti, Niger, Comoros, Afghanistan, Oman, Guyana, Turkey, and Burkina Faso. An 18-member delegation of Bangladesh Armed Forces participated in the exercise that began on March 18.
