Staff Reporter:
Bangladesh and the Netherlands yesterday reaffirmed their commitment to further strengthening bilateral relations through enhanced cooperation and sustained high-level engagement across a wide range of sec-tors.
The commitment was reiterated when Ambassador of the Netherlands to Bangladesh Joris van Bommel paid a courtesy call on State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed Islam at the foreign ministry yesterday, said a foreign ministry’s press release.
Dominique Kuhling, Director for Asia and Oceania at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who is visiting Bangladesh from June 8-10, also attended the meeting.
During the meeting, the state minister appreciated the Netherlands’ longstanding support for Bangla-desh’s development journey, particularly in the areas of democratic transition, trade and investment, sus-tainability in the industrial sector, agriculture and water management.
The two sides held extensive discussions on political and economic developments, Bangladesh’s gradua-tion from the Least Developed Country (LDC) category, the proposed Bangladesh-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA), migration cooperation, human capital development, women’s empowerment, semiconductor technology, and education, sports and people-to-people exchanges.
Earlier in the day, the visiting Dutch delegation met Secretary (East, West) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr Md Nazrul Islam and discussed ways to advance Bangladesh-Netherlands cooperation in areas of mutual interest.
