Bangladesh proposes gas imports from Azerbaijan, first round of Foreign Office Consultations held in Baku
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen has said climate change adaptation is more important to Bangladesh than mitigation, and in this area, Bangladesh and Azerbaijan can work together
Bangladesh has 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 the Azerbaijan side responded positively.
The first round of Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) between Bangladesh and Azerbaijan was held on 14 June at Baku, Azerbaijan.
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan Elnur Mammadov led their respective sides at the FOC.
All aspects of bilateral cooperation between the two countries, including cooperations in trade, investments, educational, cultural, and ICT sectors, were discussed during the meeting.
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.
He also urged Azerbaijan to import manpower from Bangladesh.
Both sides also exchanged views on different regional and global issues, including the Russia-Ukraine war, Rohingya crisis, and the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh region.
Climate adaptation over mitigation
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen has said climate change adaptation is more important to Bangladesh than mitigation, and in this area, Bangladesh and Azerbaijan can work together.
He had a courtesy meeting with Deputy Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan and CEO of COP 29 (Conference of the Parties to UNFCCC) Elnur Sultanov on 14 June and discussed the issues on the climate front.
During the meeting, the Deputy Minister of Energy of Azerbaijan said that as the next COP Chair, his country is working to ensure better climate financing for developing countries and to ensure that mechanisms already developed under the previous climate conferences like Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Loss and Damage Fund provide better outputs for the developing world.
The Foreign Secretary assured that Bangladesh will work closely with Azerbaijan over these issues.
He also proposed to sign an MoU with Azerbaijan for the import of natural gas from the country to which the Azeri Deputy Minister for Energy responded positively.