Bangladesh and the European Union have shown interest to sign a partnership cooperation agreement (PCA) – says the Dhakatribune, to elevate their ties to the next level before celebrating 50 years of diplomatic relations. Indo-Pacific region is an extremely important region to the EU. Bangladesh Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam said there is a huge scope of enhancing trade in this region. For this, There is room to remove barriers to trade in this region.
The issues to be covered in the agreement are connectivity, defence, facing climate change threats and ensuring cybersecurity. Human rights will be the basis of the structure of this new legal framework.
Bangladesh’s State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md. Shahriar Alam and Deputy Secretary General of the European External Action Service (EEAS) Enrique Mora conveyed the two sides’ willingness regarding such a mechanism. They were talking to media after the first ever political dialogue between the two sides in Dhaka Thursday.
Enrique Mora said, “We are reconsidering our relations with Bangladesh for two reasons. One is Bangladesh’s spectacular growth and achievements. We are interested to help in various sectors for this. We also have important interest in the Indo-Pacific region. Our objectives and strategy is to take an important position there. We want to increase partnership with the countries of this region to achieve that goal.”
According to Mora it has become essential to change the current framework of mutual assistance as Bangladesh is advancing so fast that many different issues outside of the framework are entering into discussion. As a result, this partnership agreement is the structure of elevating to the next step. It is possible to ensure all types of cooperation within this legal framework, he added.
« Taking into consideration Bangladesh’s gradually increasing capacity, growth and relation with the European Union, there is scope to further deepen and enlarging the relation between the two sides » - Md. Shahriar Alam, State minister for foreign affairs
Speaking to media, Shahriar Alam said the relation has to be taken to the next step and to the level of partnership. For this an agreement has to be signed. I can’t say when the partnership agreement could be signed. But we want to do it in the context of celebrations of 50 years of diplomatic relations.
The state minister for foreign affairs said, “We have agreed that we would work on a partnership cooperation agreement. This has a process of discussion. Taking consideration into Bangladesh’s gradually increasing capacity, growth and relation with the European Union, there is scope to further deepen and enlarge the relation between the two sides.”
