As one of the first few countries to recognize Bangladesh as a sovereign entity after our War for Independence, Canada has been one of our nation’s most trusted development partners over the decades. The country hosts one of the more vibrant Bangladeshi diaspora communities and has rapidly become the destination of choice for prospective students from our nation seeking higher studies.
However, over the past few years, Canada has seemingly started tightening its immigration and student visa policies, spurred by the country’s current housing crisis. While such restrictions have been blanket for the most part, it does a disservice to our student population who have found it increasingly difficult to find footing in Canada despite their levels of qualification.
It is heartening to know, then, that the smooth facilitation of Bangladeshi students who wish to pursue their higher studies in Canada was one of the key issues discussed in the recent visit of the Bangladeshi Chief of Army Staff General Waker-Uz-Zaman alongside talks of exploring new horizons for enhancing Bangladesh-Canada relations in numerous other fronts.
Indeed, given the unprecedented moment Bangladesh finds itself in the here and now, nurturing bilateral relations with some of our oldest partners will indeed be crucial in the coming years, more so when it comes to ensuring that our brightest minds get a fair chance at enhancing their knowledge and skill-sets in foreign educational institutes in their quest for truly realizing the vision of Bangladesh 2.0 which they fought so hard to achieve.
Bangladesh has always been keen to extend its friendship to other nations, more so when it comes to nations which have historically been in support of our nation. We hope, then. that the relations between Bangladesh and Canada stay strong and indeed become even stronger in the years to come.
