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Pakistan Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch arrived in Bangladesh on Wednesday to discuss bilateral issues. She will hold bilateral talks with Bangladesh's Foreign Secretary Jashim Uddin on Thursday.
Israt Jahan, Director General of South Asia Wing at Bangladesh Foreign Ministry, received Baloch at the airport. "With Pakistan, our relationship was, in a way, frozen for a long time. Right now we are trying to have a normal conversation and relationship with Pakistan based on our own interests", Md Jashim Uddin, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary, told ANI. "Just to contextualise, we are going to have the next round of foreign office consultations in April (Thursday) and the last round was held in 2004, more than two decades ago", he added. "What we do with Pakistan is what we do with any country in our bilateral relationship, and it shouldn't cause concern for anyone because our aim is to be mutually beneficial, not at the expense of our relationship with any other country", Uddin said. The visit of the Pakistani foreign secretary is considered significant ahead of the upcoming visit of the country's foreign minister to Bangladesh. Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar is likely to arrive in Bangladesh later this month. "The upcoming visit is very important because Ishaq Dar is also the Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan and is a very close aide to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. Several agreements and MOUs will be signed between Pakistan and Bangladesh during his visit", a senior Pakistani official told ANI without elaborating. A Pakistan trade delegation is also expected to be accompanied by the Foreign Minister. Meanwhile, Pakistan's Additional Foreign Secretary (Asia and Pacific) Imran Ahmed Siddiqui held a series of meetings with senior Bangladeshi officials in March to review and strengthen bilateral cooperation across multiple sectors, including foreign relations, trade, culture, visas, and people-to-people exchanges, the Pakistan High Commission in Dhaka said. "During his meeting with Md Jashim Uddin, Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh, both sides reviewed the current state of Pakistan-Bangladesh relations, which are based on mutual respect and shared values," the statement said. "Both sides agreed to work closely to strengthen cultural ties between the two nations," the statement added. (ANI)
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