Charles Whiteley, the European Union (EU) ambassador appointed in Dhaka said, " Meeting with Foreign Minister Dr. Hasan Mahmood was very fruitful. EU-Bangladesh relations will go further under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. The EU is going to sign a new Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA) with Bangladesh soon. Through this, the relationship between the two sides will increase.
Wednesday (January 17) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He gave this information after a meeting with Dr. Hasan Mahmud.
Charles Whiteley said, "This is my first meeting with Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud." He has strong ties with Belgium because he studied there. And Belgium is the headquarters of the European Union.
On the future of Bangladesh-EU relations, the ambassador said, "I think there will be a big change in our relations in the next five years based on the new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA). This (PCA) is more political in nature than the agreement we have with Bangladesh since 2001. Earlier agreements were mostly development cooperation which is still present.
During the meeting, we had a wide-ranging discussion on EU-Bangladesh relations. You know, we have many agendas. We are going to sign the new Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA) soon. It is a very comprehensive and new generation contract.
At this time, we also talked about the global situation including the Middle East and the Ukraine-Russia conflict which we give a lot of importance. The Rohingya crisis also came up in the discussion. We have a long-standing cooperation relationship with Bangladesh in these fields. We hope that this cooperation will continue for many years to come.
Whatever the report of election observers may say; asked whether he will continue to help Bangladesh in the next five years, he said, of course. Our bilateral relationship will continue.