Bangladesh and Botswana have signed agreements on Visa Exemption for Holders of Diplomatic and Official Passports and Bilateral Political Consultations to strengthen the bilateral ties between the two countries.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam signed the Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs), following his bilateral talks with Botswana Foreign Minister Lemogang Kwape in Gaborone on Thursday.
Bangladesh High Commissioner accredited to Botswana and officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were present in the meeting, according to a message received from Botswana on Friday.
The Botswana foreign minister welcomed the first ever foreign ministry delegation to Botswana and termed the visit as symbolic of the mutual desire to strengthen the relations.
He commented that the visit offers the possibility of exchanging views on different areas of cooperation and termed the visit as an opportunity to leverage the contacts between the foreign ministry officials and share the development experience by both sides.
Lemogang Kwape also remarked that Botswana and Bangladesh may share experience in economic areas and identify the concrete areas of cooperation.
Commending the remarkable economic development of Bangladesh, he stated that both sides are cooperating with each other at international platforms like the UN and Commonwealth and supporting each other at the bodies. The Botswana minister also expressed desire to visit Bangladesh in the near future.
Apprising Botswana delegation of the tremendous socio-economic development that has taken place in Bangladesh during the last decade, the state minister said Bangladesh aspire to become a prosperous nation by 2041 and is on satisfactory track.
He narrated Bangladesh's achievements in climate adaptation, mitigation, women empowerment and MDGs areas as well as its sustained efforts made to achieve the targets of SDGs.
Referring to the excellent bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Botswana both at bilateral and multilateral levels, he sought support of the Botswana government at the UN elections where Bangladesh has floated candidature.
Md Shahriar said Bangladesh would be happy to share its knowledge with Botswana in agriculture and textile sectors where it has comparative advantage.
He underlined that both sides may forge cooperation in food safety and food security areas and proposed that Bangladesh may establish contract farming in Botswana to reap the mutual benefits of the two countries as Botswana has plenty of uncultivated land.
Both sides agreed to celebrate the completion of 50 years of diplomatic relations by organising different programmes in Gaborone and in Dhaka.
