Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain on Wednesday said maintaining good relations with three big countries - India, China and the United States- and addressing the Rohingya issue are among the priorities in 2025, stressing that Dhaka’s ties with Delhi will advance going beyond single issue.
“Resolving the Rohingya crisis, maintaining good relationships with the three important countries and creating a more stable position on economic and diplomatic fronts are the priorities,” he said while talking to reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
As a journalist wanted to know about the Bangladesh-India relations if Dhaka's request for returning former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina remains unaddressed, Hossain said this is one of the issues and the two countries have many bilateral issues.
"I think both will continue simultaneously. We have many issues of mutual interest. We will advance with all these issues side by side," said the Adviser.
Bangladesh is expecting a reply from India regarding its request for Hasina’s extradition and was supposed to send a reminder after a certain period if no reply is received from New Delhi.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs received a diplomatic letter (note verbale) from Bangladesh 10 days ago. The interim government will take the next step based on the reply from the Indian side.
Bilateral Visit to China
Foreign Adviser Hossain said he would pay a bilateral visit to China soon to discuss the issues that the two countries have.
"Our relationship with three (India, China, US) countries is important. As China has invited me, I am going there to discuss the issues that we have," he said.
Hossain, however, did not go into details about the issues to be discussed during his visit to China.
He said Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin has convened an inter-ministerial meeting where they will fix the achievable areas and what they will seek.
Ties with India, China, US
The Foreign Adviser said Bangladesh attaches priority to India, China and the United States in terms of its relations.
“We want good relations with our neighbor. We want good relations with the United States. We also want good relations with China,” he said, referring to mutual interest with these three important countries.
At the end of this year, Hossain said, they will hopefully be able to say that Bangladesh’s relations with these countries have developed and strengthened further.
Hossain hoped that the New Year would bring good things for the country as there is a kind of stability now as the country passed through a changed situation amid uncertainty.
He also said things will become smoother in terms of economic and foreign relations.
Hossain said the Rohingya issue will be very challenging considering the ground reality but resolving the Rohingya crisis remains a priority.
He said their aim is to make sure the Rohingyas can return to Myanmar with safety and dignity.