MM Rahmatullah: Regarding the meeting, the Foreign Minister told reporters that Anne-Marie Trevelyan highly praised the development and progress of the country under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, and also expressed interest in traveling by metro rail. Ann-Marie Trevelyan, Minister of State for Indo-Pacific Affairs of the UK Foreign Office, who is visiting Bangladesh, met with Minister Dr Hasan Mahmood at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday.
Foreign Minister and also Awami League Joint General Hasan Mahmud termed BNP’s decision to boycott the upazila elections as well as the 12th Parliament elections as suicidal politics.
After returning home on Tuesday after an official visit to five countries in Asia, Europe and Africa, he said this when reporters questioned him about BNP’s boycott of upazila elections at a press briefing at the Foreign Ministry’s auditorium in Segunbagicha in the capital on Wednesday.
At that time, the journalists asked for a comment about the attack of the US law enforcement forces on the students’ protest in the US schools against the barbaric attacks and genocide of the Israeli forces in Gaza, the foreign minister said, “not only in the United States, there have been protests in Europe and in various countries around the world. And we have seen, even if someone punches Hero Alam or a mayoral candidate here, they give a statement, and the way the police are using force to quell their protests there, thousands of students are being arrested, teachers are not spared – I wonder what they will say about this.’
In the press briefing on this day, the foreign minister gave details of the official visit to five countries from April 24 to May 6.
‘Humanity at the Crossroads : Autonomous Weapons’ in Vienna, Austria on April 28-29, after the Prime Minister’s visit to Thailand on April 24-27 followed by the signing of a letter of intent to start negotiations on a visa waiver agreement for official passport holders, three MoUs on energy, tourism and customs cooperation and a free trade agreement. Minister Hasan Mahmud joined the international conference titled ‘Systems and the Challenge of Regulation’.
In addition, in a meeting with Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg in Vienna, he discussed the rapid signing of the proposed agreement to increase bilateral trade and investment in Austria and avoid double taxation, and discussed the non-proliferation and peaceful use of nuclear energy in a meeting with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi. And the Foreign Minister announced the opening of the Austria Awami League’s own office.Besides, Speaker of UK Parliament Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Leader of House of Commons Penny Mordaunt, Minister Lord Tariq Ahmed, Shadow Secretary for Environment Steve Reed, Chairman of All-Party Parliamentary Group on Bangladesh Rushnara Ali MP etc. were present and congratulated Bangladesh on the Independence and National Day.
After that, Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud highlighted the country’s representation at the 15th OIC summit in Banjul, the capital of Gambia, West Africa, from May 3 to 5. He said, in the opening session, I especially called for those responsible for war crimes in Palestine to be held accountable. As you know, Gambia has filed a case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice for genocide, we are assisting them. At the conclusion of the OIC conference, we called on OIC members to cooperate in the Rohingya genocide case.
In the briefing, besides the conference, the minister gave a brief overview of the meeting with 10 ministers and heads of organizations from various countries and international organizations.
Gambia’s foreign minister. Mamadou Tangara, Minister of Justice and Attorney General Dawda A Jalao, Foreign Minister of Egypt Sameh Hassan Shukri,Malaysia’s Foreign Minister Dato Seri Utama Haji, Indonesia’s Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi, Azerbaijan’s Foreign Minister Zeihun Bairamov, Bahrain’s Justice Minister Nawaf bin Mohamed Al-Mawadeh, Brunei Darussalam’s Second Minister for Foreign Affairs Dato’ Seri Seita Haji Erwin, Riyadh appointed as Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmoud said that Mansour, Digital Cooperation Organization (DCO) Secretary General Dima Al Yahya discussed mutual cooperation as well as joint initiatives to stop the war in Gaza and Rohingya repatriation in separate meetings.
