Foreign Minister Dr Khalilur Rahman is scheduled to leave for Saudi Arabia early Wednesday, the first foreign trip since his appointment as the Foreign Minister.
Humayun Kabir, Adviser to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, will also be part of the visit.
The Foreign Minister will attend a Foreign Ministers-level meeting in Jeddah to discuss the illegal Israeli occupation decisions aimed at promoting settlement, annexation and attempting to impose alleged Israeli sovereignty on the occupied West Bank.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold the emergency meeting of the Open-ended Executive Committee at the level of Foreign Ministers on Thursday at the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah, a senior official told UNB.
The Foreign Minister and Adviser to the PM are likely to have bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the OIC meeting with their counterparts.
The OIC meeting aims to coordinate positions and discuss ways of action to confront these invalid decisions and measures taken by the Israeli occupation authorities, the latest of which was the decision to start procedures to settle lands in the occupied West Bank under the name of ‘state property’, as part of its illegal schemes aimed at changing the legal, political and demographic status of the occupied Palestinian territory and undermining the two-state solution.
Bangladesh described Saudi Arabia as a trusted and longstanding partner of Bangladesh and recalled that diplomatic relations between the two countries began during the presidency of Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman with the establishment of Bangladesh Embassy in Saudi Arabia in 1976.
President Zia also paid a historic visit to the Kingdom in 1977.
Both sides acknowledged his historic contribution to promoting Muslim unity.
Commonwealth Meeting
The Foreign Minister will visit the United Kingdom to attend the 26th Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting (CFAMM) which will take place at Lancaster House in London on March 8, a senior official told UNB.
Representing the Commonwealth Chair-in-Office, the Minister of Finance of the Independent State of Samoa, Mulipola Anarosa Ale Molio’o, will welcome Foreign Affairs Ministers to the retreat and offer remarks.
Commonwealth Secretary-General Shirley Botchwey will also speak at the event.
This CFAMM is ‘significant’ as it will signal the start of Commonwealth Day activities, marked every year on the second Monday in March.
This 26th meeting will bring together Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers to address the role of the Commonwealth in a fast-changing international landscape; and explore impactful and transformative solutions to unlock opportunities together for shared prosperity across the Commonwealth, in the face of a fractured global climate.
It is the first time that Foreign Ministers will come together within the platform of an executive retreat, which will provide a plan of action for a bold, practical Commonwealth.
This will be Secretary-General Botchwey’s second meeting with Commonwealth Foreign Affairs Ministers at CFAMM.
Ministers will shape policy priorities leading up to the 28th Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), to be held in Antigua and Barbuda from 1-4 November 2026.