Dhaka invites Trudeau to visit Bangladesh in Sept: Momen

Dhaka has invited Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to pay a bilateral visit in Bangladesh in September this year, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said on Monday, reports BSS. 

"We have invited him (Trudeau) ... he will visit India in September to join the G20 summit, if he manage to come here that time it will be a plus," he told media after holding a meeting with Canadian International Development Minister Harjit S. Sajjan. 

The Foreign Minister was speaking at a joint press briefing along with Sajjan at state guest house Padma in the capital.

"Canadian PM visited Bangladesh when he was a kid ... now he became a household name in Bangladesh," Momen said referring Trudeau's huge popularity among the country's mass people. 

Trudeau visited to Bangladesh as a child in 1983 with his father Pierre Trudeau, who was the then Prime Minister of Canada.

Regarding the invitation, Harjit S. Sajjan said he would personally convey the Dhaka's invitation to his Prime Minister. 

"One thing I do know that he (Trudeau) does remember and very fond of his time when he travelled with his father (in Bangladesh) and he always shares his stories. So, if the opportunity does come, I know that how much he would really welcome to come here," said the Canadian minister. 

In March, 2021, Trudeau recalled his first visit to Bangladesh as a child in a video message marking the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the 50th anniversary of the country's Independence.

"That time my father and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had already forged a strong relationship -- one that was rooted in Canada's early support for an independent Bangladesh," the Canadian premier said in the video message.