Pak Foreign Secretary in Dhaka for first bilateral talks since 2010

Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch arrived in Dhaka on Wednesday as Bangladesh and Pakistan will hold the Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) in Dhaka on Thursday, marking the first such meeting since 2010.

Director General of South Asia Wing at Bangladesh’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) Ishrat Jahan welcomed her upon arrival in Dhaka, said an official at the ministry.

Foreign Secretary Md Jashim Uddin and Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Baloch will lead the Bangladesh and Pakistan sides respectively at the FOC to be held at state guest house Padma.

Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Baloch assumed the charge as the 33rd Foreign Secretary of Pakistan on September 11 last year, reports UNB.

Pakistan wanted to hold the consultations with Bangladesh as part of Islamabad’s efforts to strengthen the ties with Dhaka.

Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar is also scheduled to pay an official visit to Bangladesh later this month.

Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam on Tuesday said there will be discussions on all issues of mutual interest as the Deputy Prime Minister of Pakistan is coming.

Ishaq Dar’s upcoming trip to Dhaka will mark the first visit by a Pakistani Foreign Minister since 2012.

Both sides, in their recent interactions, expressed satisfaction over recent visits of several trade delegations from Pakistan to Bangladesh and emphasised the importance of visits by the product specific trade delegations from Bangladesh to Pakistan.

Cooperation in the sectors of tourism, people-to-people contacts, cultural exchanges, the issue of forcibly displaced Rohingyas and cooperation in the international forum were also discussed.

Both sides recalled the substantive discussion between Bangladesh's chief adviser and the prime minister of Pakistan during their meetings in Cairo on the sidelines of D-8 Summit in December 2024 and in New York in September 2024 on the sidelines of the 79th UNGA.

They also recalled the meeting between the foreign adviser and deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Pakistan on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Apia, Samoa in October 2024.