Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung made the announcement during a visit to Bangladesh on January 29 and 30 in his role as Special Envoy of Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.
During the trip, he met with Bangladeshi PM Sheikh Hasina Wazed, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, State Minister of Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam, and Country Director of the World Food Programme (WFP) in Bangladesh Richard Ragan.
Dung delivered PM Phuc’s congratulations to Sheikh Hasina Wazed on her re-election as Bangladeshi PM, as well as the country’s development achievements. He said the Vietnamese PM highly values the development of the two countries’ traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation.
The Deputy Minister also welcomed Bangladesh’s goodwill and efforts in receiving a large number of migrants from Myanmar’s Rakhine state. He voiced his hope that Bangladesh will keep close coordination with Myanmar, the United Nations, and relevant sides to seek sustainable solutions to this issue and promote the repatriation of migrants.
Vietnam and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are ready to support dialogue between the parties concerned and contribute to regional peace and stability, he affirmed.
The official noted that the Vietnamese Government will assist its Bangladeshi counterpart with 50,000 USD and donate another 50,000 USD to the WFP to help with humanitarian aid for the migrant community there.
For their part, the Bangladeshi PM and ministers appreciated the Vietnamese Government’s support. They also briefed their guest on the Rakhine migrant situation and their country’s efforts to deal with the situation as soon as possible.
They expressed their hope that Vietnam and other ASEAN countries will help Bangladesh seek solutions to this issue.
Regarding bilateral ties, the Bangladeshi side said their country and Vietnam boast huge cooperation potential, asking for bilateral connections to be strengthened. They also agreed to organise the third meeting of the joint committee for bilateral cooperation and the second political consultation between the two foreign ministries in Vietnam this year.
Meanwhile, WFP Country Director Richard Ragan also spoke highly of Vietnam’s assistance. He informed the Vietnamese official about the situation of migrants from Rakhine and the WFP’s support activities.
