Foreign Minister Dr Hassan Mahmud and his Greek counterpart George Gerapetritis have vowed to forge bilateral cooperation in different areas including migration and mobility, trade and investment, shipping, manpower and recruitment, and development of renewable and alternative energy infrastructure.
They had a meeting on Tuesday morning at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens on the sidelines of the ninth Our Ocean Conference.
They also expressed satisfaction at the continuous cooperation and excellent bilateral relations between the two nations, the foreign ministry said.
The Greek minister also cordially accepted an invitation from the Bangladesh foreign minister to visit Dhaka and mentioned that the visit can be a good option to inaugurate a Greek diplomatic mission there.
Earlier in the discussion, he assured Dr Hasan that opening a diplomatic mission in Dhaka is a priority for the Greek government.
Hasan Mahmud requested the Greek foreign minister to encourage Greek businesses to buy quality Bangladeshi items and urged him to facilitate the exports from Bangladesh.
Gerapetritis agreed on the need to enhance bilateral trade where there remains huge untapped potential and stressed the need to find a suitable strategy to help grow bilateral trade and investment.
Dr Hassan Mahmud thanked the Greek government for legalizing more than 10,000 Bangladeshi nationals who were living in Greece under the MOU on Migration and Mobility and called for smooth implementation of the second part of the MOU.
The Greek minister stated that Greece prefers recruiting Bangladeshi professionals for their hard work and law-abiding nature.
Greece will recruit a good number of Bangladeshi workers for its agriculture, tourism and hospitality, and construction sectors in the coming days.
Besides, the two ministers also agreed that meaningful cooperation between the two countries in the shipping sector can create a win-win situation as they complement each other and also agreed on building the legal framework for fruitful cooperation in the shipping sector.
Later on Tuesday, Dr Hasan Mahmud had a discussion on issues of bilateral importance and mutual interest with Spanish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenges Maria Jesus Montero on the sidelines of the conference in Athens.
Both sides agreed to establish cooperation in climate change, water management, food and agriculture, green energy, environmental sectors and issues of mutual interest.
