US Secretary of State John Kerry has expressed a desire to visit Bangladesh at a meeting with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali in Myanmar’s capital, Nay Pyi Taw.
“US Secretary of State, Mr Kerry, during the meeting, expressed his desire to visit Bangladesh at the earliest possible time,” said a foreign ministry press release.
Bangladesh’s foreign minister went to Myanmar on August 8 on a three-day visit to attend the 21st ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) Meeting.
Mahmood Ali also had an informal meeting with Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj in Myanmar where she reiterated New Delhi’s will to improve the bilateral relations between the two friendly neighbours.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi assured Mahmood Ali of China’s full support for Bangladesh’s candidature for the Human Rights Council and Inter-Parliamentary Union, in an exchange on the sidelines of the ARF meeting.
Mahmood Ali stressed the importance of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Bangladesh next year to celebrate 40 years of Bangladesh-China diplomatic relations.
The Chinese foreign minister said Beijing would invite Bangladesh’s agriculture minister for discussions on importing super hybrid rice seeds and to establish a hybrid rice laboratory in Bangladesh.
Wang confirmed that China would send an expert-level delegation to the International Conference on the Blue Economy to be held in Dhaka in September.
The foreign ministers of Bangladesh and China discussed the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor (BCIM-EC).
