Staff Reporter:
Home Adviser Lieutenant General Md Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (Retd.) yesterday said Bangladesh and Egypt are set to sign the reciprocal visa exemption agreement for the official and diplomatic passport holders soon, an official release said yesterday.
“Reciprocal visa exemption agreement with Egypt for diplomatic and official passport holders will be signed soon,” he said when Egyptian Ambassador to Bangladesh Omar Mohie Eldin Ahmed Fahmy pay-ing a courtesy call on him at his home ministry office at Bangladesh Secretariat this afternoon.
He said that the draft of the mutual visa exemption agreement for diplomatic and official passport hold-ers has been sent to Egypt through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for approval.
“If it is approved by Egypt, the agreement will be finally signed. Moreover, the matter of issuing on-arrival visas for ordinary passport holders is also being considered,” he said.
The ambassador assured that Egypt will extend all-out cooperation in this regard.
Apart from the issue, the meeting also discussed various matters that included the law and order and se-curity aspects of the two countries, police training, prevention of illegal immigration and human traf-ficking, countering transnational terrorism, exchange of intelligence information, mutual legal assis-tance, exchange of experience on border security, and other matters of mutual interest.
Welcoming the ambassador at the beginning of the meeting, the adviser said that Egypt is a close friend of Bangladesh and the countries have had excellent bilateral relations over the past 50 years.
“This relationship is based on mutual respect and trust,” he said.
He also said that Egypt is the custodian and bearer of ancient civilization and Islamic history and tradi-tion, he said.
Mentioning that the best police training academy in the African continent is located in Egypt, the ambas-sador said, “Egypt can assist Bangladesh in training and capacity building of the police.”
Moreover, Egypt is interested in cooperating with Bangladesh in the security sector, he said.
Senior Secretary of Home Ministry Nasimul Ghani, Joint Secretary (Political-1) of the Public Security Division Md. Jasim Uddin Khan, Director General of the Africa Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs BM Jamal Hossain and other concerned officials were present in the meeting.
