Erdogan to visit Dhaka early 2021 to join D-8 summit

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that he would visit Dhaka early next year to join the D-8 summit as Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen called on him in Ankara.

During the meeting, Turkish president and Bangladesh foreign minister discussed various issues of mutual interest, including D-8 summit, Rohingya crisis and trade cooperation, a foreign ministry press release said on Wednesday.

Erdogan assured Dhaka that Ankara would be beside Bangladesh in all fronts, including bilateral and multilateral, to resolve the ongoing Rohingya crisis.

The Turkish president highly lauded Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her humanitarian efforts in providing shelter to forcibly displaced Rohingyas in Bangladesh.

He also gave some specific proposals to increase trade cooperation between Bangladesh and Turkey through easing duties on export-import of different products including textile and medicine.

The Turkish president also proposed Dhaka to allocate a land in Bangladesh for building a modern hospital with Turkish financial support.

They expressed their satisfaction over the existing excellent bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Turkey and hoped that the ongoing cooperation on education, culture and defence between the two nations would further strengthen in the days to come.

The Turkish president also assured Momen of more necessary Turkish support to Bangladesh for helping Dhaka in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Erdogan also laid emphasis on expansion of D-8, an Organization for Economic Cooperation comprising Bangladesh, Egypt, Nigeria, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan and Turkey, by adding new member countries.

Dhaka is set to host the D-8 summit, that was supposed to be held in May this year but delayed due to the COVID-19, early next year depends on the pandemic situation.

Bangladesh will take over the next Chair of the D-8 from current chair Turkey through the Dhaka D-8 summit.

Erdogan also expressed keen interest to attend the inaugural ceremony of newly build Turkish embassy building in Dhaka.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlit Cavusoglu was also present.

Bangladesh foreign minister, who is on a four-day visit in Turkey, is expected to return here tomorrow morning.