Bangladesh and Pakistan on Thursday held Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) after 15 years, as the two South Asian countries are keen to strengthen their ties.
Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin and Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch are leading their respective delegation at the FOC being held at the State Guest House Padma.
The FOC marks the first such meeting since 2010.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs South Asia Wing Director General Ishrat Jahan and high commissioners of Bangladesh and Pakistan are also attending the meeting.
Pakistan wanted to hold the consultations with Bangladesh as part of Islamabad’s efforts to strengthen its ties with Dhaka.
Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar is also scheduled to pay an official visit to Bangladesh later this month.
Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam on Tuesday said there will be discussions on all issues of mutual interest as the deputy prime minister of Pakistan is coming.
Dar’s trip to Dhaka will mark the first visit by a Pakistani Foreign Minister since 2012.
Both sides, in their recent interactions, expressed satisfaction over recent visits of several trade delegations from Pakistan to Bangladesh and emphasised the importance of visits by product-specific trade delegations from Bangladesh to Pakistan.
Cooperation in the sectors of tourism, people-to-people contacts, cultural exchanges, the issue of forcibly displaced Rohingyas and cooperation in the international forum were also discussed.
Both sides recalled the substantive discussion between Bangladesh's chief adviser and the prime minister of Pakistan during their meetings in Cairo on the sidelines of the D-8 Summit in December and in New York in September on the sidelines of the 79th UNGA.
They also recalled the meeting between the foreign adviser and the deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Pakistan on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Apia, Samoa, in October.
