Hon’ble State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh Ms. Shama Obaed Islam, MP emphasized on strengthening bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Tajikistan during a call on her by the Deputy Foreign Minister of Tajikistan Mr. Idibek Kalandar at her office this morning.

Referring to the commonalities in culture and values and historical ties between Bangladesh and Tajikistan, the State Minister attached importance in widening cooperation in trade and commerce, economic relation, and investment and promoting economic diplomacy as a foreign policy priority of the present government led by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of Bangladesh H.E. Mr. Tarique Rahman.  

The State Minister further stressed on enhanced and deeper engagement in the soft power diplomacy such as in education, culture, sports, tourism, technology, expertise and knowledge sharing, skill and vocational training, women empowerment, and women and youth entrepreneurships. During the meeting the State Minister further emphasized on enhanced youth engagements, people-to-people contacts, business-to-business collaboration, and government-to-government cooperation through institutional frameworks, mechanisms, and understanding.

The State Minister mentioned that the safe, dignified, and voluntary return of Rohingyas to their homeland is an imperative and seeking the Tajik support in international forums such as the UN, she commented that this a collective responsibility to address the issue. Terming Bangladesh as an advocate for peace and stability, the State Minister referred to the extraordinary contribution of Bangladesh in the UN Peacekeeping Operations. She added that in an aim to expand the horizon of diplomatic outreach and geopolitical connectivity, Bangladesh has been focusing for wider diplomatic engagement with potential but untapped regions such as the East European and CIS countries and sought the support of Tajikistan for Bangladesh’s aspiration for the membership to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), where among others the Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan are members. The Tajik Minister responded positively for their candid support towards Bangladesh’s membership to SCO.