State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh met H.E. Mr. Etjen Xhafaj, Deputy Foreign Minister of Albania on 17 February at Albanian Foreign Ministry in Tirana. This is an official bilateral meeting held after long time between Bangladesh and Albania.

At the outset, State Minister briefed the Albanian Deputy Minister of the recent developments in Bangladesh in political, social and infrastructural sectors under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. He mentioned that the present Government was pledge bound to the people to materialize the dream of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. As a result, Bangladesh was being promoted from the status of LDC to a middle-income country very soon. He then further briefed ongoing development efforts and activities undertaken by the present Government.

In response, the Albanian Deputy Foreign Minister stated that the development of Bangladesh had been an issue to observe for all other similar countries and Albania could learn a great deal from the process Bangladesh adopted to turn it into a manufacturing export-oriented economy. He profusely thanked the leadership of Bangladesh for recognizing Kosovo which would help stabilize the situation in Balkan and brought peace for the people of the region. He further thanked Bangladesh for providing shelter and other facilities to the Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and mentioned their own experience with half a million refugees from Kosovo in 1999 and the great hardship it brought to everybody. He reiterated their support to Bangladesh in this regard.

Both the Ministers agreed to conclude few bilateral instruments to further strengthen their current relations and Bangladesh State Minister reminded them of the invitation for the OIC CFM to be held in May and sought the participation of a high level delegation from Albania. They agreed to work together in various international fora for the mutual benefit of the both the countries.

As the part of the official visit to Kosovo and Albania, State Minister also met the Foreign Minister of Kosovo H.E. Mr. Behgjet Pacolli who expressed the sincere gratitude of his Government to the Government of Bangladesh for recognizing Kosovo and providing support in different international fora. Both of them expressed deep satisfaction for the establishment of formal diplomatic relations on 16 February in New York signed by the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh and the representative of Kosovo. Both of them agreed to work closely in future and emphasized the need to exchange more visits and conclusion of official instruments to strengthen the bilateral relations. Cooperation between the private sectors could be the beginning to start with and this could be further replicated in other bilateral sectors. The State Minister of Bangladesh assured all supports in future for Kosovo.

Bangladesh State Minister will further meet the President of Kosovo and the Speaker of the State Assembly of Kosovo tomorrow. Secretary ( Bilateral and Consular ) of Foreign Ministry Mr. Kamrul Ahsan, Director General Md. Nazrul Islam and Director Waliur Rahman assisted the State Minister.

Md. Tohidul Islam
Senior Information Officer
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Mob-01718543625