Foreign minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Friday held separate bilateral meetings with his Belgian, Czech, Swedish, and Vietnamese counterparts on the sideline of the 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 for providing continuous support in the development journey of Bangladesh, a foreign ministry press release said.
Lahbib expressed keen interest in further strengthening 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 to pay 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's foreign minister discussed the way how to further expand trade and investment cooperation with all four countries.
Noting that the repatriation of the forcefully displaced people to Rakhine is the only solution to the Rohingya crisis, Mahmud urged all the nations to mount pressure on Myanmar regarding the matter.
The foreign minister will return to Dhaka on 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.
