The BNP wants to further strengthen geopolitical, economic and business ties with China, Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Minister Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir has said, adding that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman’s recent visit to China had deepened the two countries’ existing relationship. He made the remarks at a discussion organised by the “Bangladesh-China Friendship Association” at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon hotel in the capital on Saturday (18 July), held under the title “Long Live Bangladesh-China Friendship” after the prime minister’s historic China visit, with China’s ambassador to Bangladesh, Yao Wen, as guest of honour.
Mirza Fakhrul said: “Our young people are going to China and building relationships. Tarique Rahman’s visit has energised the two countries’ relations. The BNP’s relationship with the Communist Party of China is long-standing; we kept in touch with the party even during fascist Awami oppression.” He said China had kept ties not only with the Awami League but with the BNP and other parties too, and that the BNP wanted ties with China on geopolitical interest while also keeping economic and political ties with India and the United States. He said China-Bangladesh relations were now quite high, that Bangladesh wanted China’s technological help, and that the country’s help was also needed to educate Bangladesh’s youth in technical education, adding that Bangladesh would benefit from greater Chinese technological help in building roads and infrastructure and in solar and green energy.
Ambassador Yao Wen said China was interested in bringing its high-speed train technology to Bangladesh in future, and that Chattogram, Dhaka and Sylhet could be brought under it. He assured China’s fullest cooperation on Rohingya repatriation and said Tarique Rahman’s visit had begun a new chapter. Information Minister Zahir Uddin Swapan, State Minister for Civil Aviation and Tourism Rashiduzzaman Millat and others were present. The meeting was chaired by Bangladesh-China Friendship Association president and adviser to the BNP chairperson, Advocate Nazmul Haque Nannu.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report