Pakistan’s Commerce Minister Jam Kamal Khan will arrive in Dhaka on August 21 for a four-day visit. The country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will arrive on August 23.

While Ishaq Dar’s Dhaka trip had been confirmed earlier, the commerce minister’s visit is a new addition. 

According to sources discussions on boosting bilateral trade will be the key focus during Jam Kamal Khan’s visit.

Following the visits by Jam Kamal Khan and Ishaq Dar, Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb may also come to Dhaka, with both sides currently in talks regarding the trip.

The Pakistani foreign minister will be in Dhaka for a two-day visit starting 23 August, marking the first visit by a Pakistani foreign minister to Bangladesh since 2012. On the second day of his trip, 24 August, Ishaq Dar will hold a meeting with Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain.

Ahead of Ishaq Dar’s visit, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Amna Baloch visited Dhaka on 16–17 April, during which a foreign secretary-level meeting between the two countries was held.

Earlier this year, Ishaq Dar was scheduled to visit Dhaka on 27–28 April, but the trip was postponed amid ongoing tensions between Pakistan and India over the Kashmir issue. The visit has now been rescheduled.

In 2012, Hina Rabbani Khar was the last Pakistani foreign minister to visit Bangladesh, when she came to invite then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to the D-8 summit of developing Muslim countries.

MSK/