Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said Chinese leaders have assured Bangladesh of extending all-out cooperation to resolve the Rohingya crisis and repatriate Myanmar nationals to their homeland. She mentioned that Bangladesh and China also agreed to work together to take the bilateral ties to a new height making those deeper and stronger. The PM was addressing a press conference at her official residence Ganobhaban about the outcome of her recent China visit on Monday (Jul 8), local media reported.
The Prime Minister went to China on Jul 1 to attend the World Economic Forum held at Dalian and hold bilateral talks with her Chinese counterpart and President in Beijing.
Sheikh Hasina said she first went to Dalian where she attended the annual meeting of the new champions of the World Economic Forum and other events.
During her stay in Dalian, the PM said, she also held a meeting with WEF Executive Chairman and Founder Professor Klaus Schwab. The WEF Executive Chairman assured that the WEF would undertake programmes marking the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence. Besides, Bangladesh will be the main focus at the next Davos Summit of the World Economic Forum to be held in Switzerland in 2021, she said.
The PM said in Beijing, she held meetings separately with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang.
She told the press conference that they both agreed on speedy solution to the protracted Rohingya crisis and they also want the repatriation of the forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals to their homeland.
Sheikh Hasina said in her meeting with Xi Jingpin, she sought “good will” from the Chinese government so that Rohingyas can return to their motherland.
The two leaders also agreed that the representatives of the two countries will work together for the repatriation of Rohingyas.
Hasina said Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang highly appreciated Bangladesh’s GDP growth and mentioned that both the countries could learn from each other’s development.
During the meeting, she mentioned that the Chinese president assured Bangladesh of always remaining beside its development stride.
The PM told the press conference that in response to her request to reduce the existing trade imbalance, the Chinese President and Premier agreed to make all sorts of efforts to reduce the trade imbalance.
In this regard, Hasina said, she urged Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang to encourage Chinese companies to invest in Bangladesh with a buy-back facility to ease the big trade imbalance against Bangladesh.
Pointing out various projects being implemented in Bangladesh with Chinese assistance, she said she put emphasis on expediting the implementation process of the projects during her meeting with the top leaders of China.
Besides, she urged the Chinese President to ease the terms and condition of loan agreements for timely disbursement of funds for expediting the implementation process of the projects.
The PM said she sought Chinese assistance for implementing the Delta Plan 2100, setting up a Climate Adaptation Centre and implementation of Teesta River Comprehensive Management and Restoration project.
During the meeting with her Chinese counterpart, Hasina said, she called for expediting the initiatives of establishing high-speed train service on Dhaka-Chattogram-Cox’s Bazar rail route.
Following her bilateral meeting with Li Keqiang, the PM said, nine agreements and MoUs were signed between Dhaka and Beijing on cooperation in economic and technical, power, trade and investment as well as in the areas of culture and tourism.
