Bangladesh has taken a new look to Cambodia and agreed on number of issues and signed a deal with the Southeast Asian country to hold regular dialogue to bolster the ties. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on establishment of Foreign Office Consultations was signed on Thursday in Dhaka at the first-ever ‘joint commission’ meeting that took stock of the entire bilateral relations and set new directions to take the relations further forward.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md. Shahriar Alam led an 18-member Bangladesh delegation while Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation Eat Sophea led 27-member Cambodia delegation. Bangladesh is traditionally focused to the European and North American countries for trade and businesses. But in recent years particularly following the Rohingya crisis, Dhaka is increasing its presence to the neighbouring Southeast Asian countries who have a strong economic bloc ASEAN.
Cambodia is one of the key members of ASEAN. Bangladesh on Wednesday named a road in the Baridhara diplomatic zone after the architect of Cambodia King Norodom Sihanouk. Cambodia earlier in 2017 named a road in Phnom Penh after the architect of Bangladesh Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The MoU for establishing the joint commission framework was signed in Dhaka in June 2014 during the visit of the Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The two sides, during the Thursday meeting in Dhaka, comprehensively discussed the present state of bilateral relations covering areas such as trade and investment, agriculture and fisheries, science and technology, culture, defence, ICT, tourism, and parliamentary friendship.
Both sides stressed on expanding bilateral trade and investment and sharing each other’s practices and strategies in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the foreign ministry said. The two sides agreed that the Technical Working Group Meeting on training cooperation will be held in Dhaka soon.
To implement the MoU on tourism both sides decided to convene the first meeting of the Joint Working Group in Cambodia soon. Both sides underscored the importance of direct air connectivity and stressed the need for early signing of the Air Services Agreement.
Bangladesh handed over to the Cambodian side a three year Cultural Exchange Programme (CEP) to celebrate the Mujib Year jointly in both countries. It was agreed that the Liberation War Museum of Bangladesh and the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum of Cambodia would share best practices through arrangement of joint seminar and sharing of best practices.
Both sides welcomed the finalization of the proposed MoU on Defence Cooperation under which members of armed forces of both countries would take part in various training and capacity building programmes in both countries. It was agreed that parliamentarians of two countries would take part in exchange programmes under the framework of the Bangladesh-Cambodia Parliamentary Friendship Group.
Bangladesh sought Cambodia’s support on the Rohingya repatriation issue. The foreign ministry said the Cambodian side was highly appreciative of the government of Bangladesh for providing shelter to the persecuted people from Rakhine State and assured to support repatriation process within the framework of ASEAN.
They hoped that Bangladesh’s bilateral consultations with Myanmar would lead an early solution to the problem. Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen, Bangladesh Ambassador to Thailand concurrently accredited to Cambodia Md. Nazmul Quaunine and Cambodian Ambassador to India concurrently accredited to Bangladesh UNG Sean also attended the meeting, among others.
