Dhaka has urged Azerbaijan to recruit manpower from Bangladesh during the first round of Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) between Bangladesh and Azerbaijan. 

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elnur Mammadov led their respective sides at the FOC held at Baku, Azerbaijan on Friday, a foreign ministry's press release said today (June 15). 

During the FOC, all aspects of bilateral cooperation between the two countries including cooperation in trade, investments, educational, cultural and ICT sector were discussed. 

Both sides stressed the importance of exchanging high level visits and agreed to expedite works on the pending bilateral instruments. 

The foreign secretary requested Azerbaijan to import good quality affordable RMG and pharmaceutical products from Bangladesh. 

The Bangladesh side proposed that Azerbaijan can be a good source of natural gas import for Bangladesh and also proposed to sign an MOU in this regard to which Azerbaijan side responded positively. 

Both sides also exchanged their views on different regional and global issues including the Russia-Ukraine war, Rohingya crisis and the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh region.

On the sideline of FOC, Bangladesh Foreign Secretary paid a courtesy call on Deputy Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan and CEO of COP 29 (Conference of the Parties to UNFCCC) Elnur Sultanov.
 
During the meeting, the Deputy Minister said that Azerbaijan as the next COP Chair is working to ensure better climate financing for developing countries while mechanisms already developed under the previous climate conferences like Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Loss and Damage Fund. 

Masud assured that Bangladesh will work closely with Azerbaijan over these issues.
 
He said that climate change adaptation is more important to Bangladesh than mitigation and in this area Bangladesh and Azerbaijan can work together. 

The foreign secretary also proposed to sign an MOU with Azerbaijan for import of natural gas from the country to which Azeri Deputy Minister for Energy responded positively.

BDST: 1517 HRS, JUNE 15, 2024
MN/SMS