Australia likes to extend cooperation to Bangladesh in sectors like trade and investment, agriculture, sports, and power and energy, climate change, and human resource development for Bangladesh. Australia will also extend different training offers for Bangladesh in a wide range of areas including counterterrorism, defense, maritime security, and so on. These were discussed during the 2nd Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) between Bangladesh and Australia held today at the State Guest House, Meghna in Dhaka.
The Australian side was led by Penny Williams, Deputy Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) of Australia and the Bangladesh side was led by Mahbub Uz Zaman, Secretary (Asia & Pacific) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Representatives from different ministries and divisions such as Ministry of Power and Energy, Ministry of Home, Economic Relations Division, Youth and Sports, Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA), Police Headquarters (HQs) and others. At the meeting major issues of bilateral and regional interests were discussed.
Australia will support Bangladesh for safe and dignified return of displaced people from Myanmar which is an essential component of durable solution of Rohingya crisis. During the discussion, the Australian side informed that Australia has lifted air cargo restriction for Bangladesh but cargoes originating from Bangladesh need to transit through designated points.
Australia is committed to continue its development assistance for Bangladesh and continue to increase the number of scholarships for Bangladesh. Australia offered 217 scholarships for different categories and fields for Bangladeshi students during 2018. During the meeting Bangladesh proposed four Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on four different areas of cooperation such as agriculture, promotion and protection of investment, sports, and power sector and Australian side assured for their consideration of the MoUs. Both the sides expressed their willingness to work together for strengthening and deepening the bilateral relations so happily exists between the two countries since the independence of Bangladesh in 1971.