Bangladesh always looks forward to build ever closer and better ties with Pakistan, and will leave no avenue unexplored to achieve this objective. Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh, Ambassador Mohammed Mirajul Quayes said as he stopped over in Karachi for a series of meetings enroute to Islamabad.
The Bangladesh foreign secretary expressed these views as the guest speaker at a seminar "Pakistan-Bangladesh relations" jointly hosted by the Karachi Council on Foreign Relations, Economic Affairs and Law, and the Pakistan-Bangladesh Friendship Forum.
The foreign secretary in his 45-minute extempore lecture held the audience totally spellbound and engrossed as his talk was laced with couplets from Mir Taqi Meer, Mirza Ghalib, Allama Iqbal, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Rabindranath Tagore as well as Greek mythology and Western philosophy.
He informed the audience that Bangladesh looked forward to build mechanisms for closer ties with less bureaucratic hassles and he had brought a message of friendship of friendship from the government and people of Bangladesh for the people and the government of Pakistan. He added that Bangladesh was willing to explore each and every avenue to further enhance co-operation between the two countries.
The foreign secretary said that Safta (South Asia Free Trade Association would help give the region a powerful collective voice, as it represented the aspirations of 1.3 billion people. He said Bangladesh had always been an ardent supporter of all collective voices, and this was why his country had tried to keep the climate change issue alive on many fora, as it directly affected the region as well as Bangladesh. He felt there was no reason that the two countries could not come closer and reiterated the need for greater people-to-people contact.
Earlier, KCFA Secretary Ahsan Mukhtar Zubairi introduced the Bangladeshi Foreign Secretary and said Bangladesh and Pakistan have a bright future and should have more frequent exchanges.
The Chairman of Pakistan-Bangladesh Friendship Forum, Justice Said-uz-Zaman Siddiqui welcoming Ambassador Quayes, said Pakistan and Bangladesh have long cultural ties and a common history, as Bengal had played an important role in the creation of Pakistan. He called for closer economic relations and trade ties and said Bangladesh had an important role to play in the OIC, Saarc as well as world politics.-PR