Bangladesh, Greece vow to strengthen bilateral ties further

Foreign minister Hasan Mahmud and his Greek counterpart George Gerapetritis vowed to forge bilateral cooperation in different areas including migration and mobility, trade and investment, shipping, manpower and recruitment, development of renewable and alternative energy infrastructure.

The expressed the commitment during a bilateral meeting in the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center in Athens on Tuesday, on the sidelines of the 9th Our Ocean Conference from 15 to 17 April, according to a press release.

They also expressed satisfaction at the continuous cooperation and excellent bilateral relations between the two nations.

The Greek foreign minister cordially accepted the invitation of Bangladesh foreign minister to visit Dhaka and mentioned that the visit can be a good option to inaugurate the Greek diplomatic mission there.

Earlier in the discussion, he assured Hasan Mahmud that opening a diplomatic mission in Dhaka is a priority for the Greek government.

The Bangladesh foreign minister requested his Greek counterpart to encourage Greek businesses to import state of art Bangladesh export items and urged him to facilitate the exports from Bangladesh.

The Greek foreign minister agreed on the need to enhance bilateral trade where there remains huge untapped potential and stressed on the need to find a suitable strategy to help grow bilateral trade and investment.

Foreign minister Hasan Mahmud thanked the Greek government for legalising more than 10,000 Bangladeshi nationals who were living in Greece under the MOU on migration and mobility and called for smooth implementation of the second part of the MOU.

The Greek foreign minister said Greece prefers recruiting Bangladeshi professionals for their hard work and law abiding nature. Greece will recruit a good number of Bangladeshi workers for its agriculture, tourism and hospitality and construction sector in the coming days.

Besides, the two ministers agreed that meaningful cooperation between the two countries in the shipping sector can create a win-win situation as they complement each other and also agreed on building the legal framework for fruitful cooperation in the shipping sector.

Later on the day, foreign minister Hasan Mahmud had a fruitful discussion on issues of bilateral importance and mutual interest with the Spanish deputy prime minister and minister of ecological transition and demographic challenges, Maria Jesus Montero, on the sidelines of 9th Our Ocean Conference in Athens.

Both sides agreed to establish cooperation in the climate change, water management , food and agriculture cooperation, green energy, environmental sectors and issues of mutual interest.