Bangladesh and Pakistan on Sunday signed a series of cooperation documents, including one agreement, four memoranda of understanding (MoUs), and a cultural exchange program.
The signing ceremony was held at a hotel in Dhaka, attended by Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain and Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar.
Earlier, the two sides held a ministerial-level bilateral meeting led by Touhid Hossain for Bangladesh and Ishaq Dar for Pakistan.
Under the new agreement, official and diplomatic passport holders from both countries will no longer require visas.
The MoUs signed include the formation of a joint working group on trade, cooperation between the foreign service academies of the two countries, collaboration between the state-run news agencies Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) and Pakistan’s Associated Press of Pakistan Corporation (APP), and a partnership between the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) and Pakistan’s Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI).
In addition, a cultural exchange program was signed to enhance people-to-people ties.
During his visit to Dhaka, Ishaq Dar also held a breakfast meeting with Bangladesh’s Commerce Adviser Sheikh Bashiruddin.
Diplomatic sources confirmed that in the afternoon he was scheduled to meet Jamaat-e-Islami chief Shafiqur Rahman at his residence in the capital’s Bashundhara area.
He was also expected to call on the Chief Adviser of the interim government, Professor Muhammad Yunus, and later in the evening visit BNP Chairperson and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan residence to inquire about her health.
Dar arrived in Dhaka on Saturday aboard a special Pakistan Air Force flight for a two-day visit and was received by Foreign Secretary Masud Alam.
On the first day of his trip, he held separate meetings with leaders of the BNP, Jamaat-e-Islami, and the National Citizen Party (NCP), where he underlined Pakistan’s commitment to strengthening relations with Bangladesh based on mutual respect and shared interests.
