Rear Admiral M. Ashraful Haque, Director General of Bangladesh Coast Guard, returned home after participating in the four-day long (8-11 October-2019) the 15th Heads of Asian Coast Guard Agencies Meeting (HACGAM) in Sri Lanka. High-level participants including international agency members from 18 countries attended the meeting.
Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, Chief of Defence Staff of Sri Lanka, attended the meeting as the chief guest. Among others, representatives from Bangladesh, Australia, Bahrain, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, The Philippines, Singapore, Srilanka, Thailand, Turkey and associate member ReCAAP-ISC (The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed robbery against Ship in Asia) and representatives of three observation agencies of Bali Process, France and UNODC attended the meeting.
Detail discussion was held at the meeting to increase co-operation, good-will and understanding among the member countries. The meeting also discussed elaborately about stoppage of illegal activities, saving marine environment, conducting rescue operation and increase of ability among the member countries. M Ashraful Haque left Dhaka for Srilanka with three of his staff on October 7.