Staff Correspondent: Dhaka, 16-July,

Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen has laid emphasis on combined efforts among all states to establish good connectivity in Central and South Asia opening new avenues of cooperation.

Dr. Momen was addressing the plenary session titled “Central and South Asia: Regional Connectivity” of the International Conference “Central and South Asia: Regional connectivity - Challenges and Opportunities” on Friday at Congress Hall in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.

He mentioned that Bangladesh has tried to boost the connectivity with its neighboring countries and playing a leading role through the organization called the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), initiating to connect Bangladesh with Bhutan, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal, and Myanmar with the ASEAN and BIMSTEC.

Bangladesh is also trying to engage itself in various connectivity projects through road, rail, and sea routes with the neighboring countries, he said.

The Foreign Minister showed an example that Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and India (BBIN) signed a landmark Motor Vehicles Agreement (MVA) in 2015 for the regulation of passenger, personnel, and vehicular cargo traffic among these countries.

He referred to the long-standing common cultural and civil bonds of the Central and South Asian regions which serve as the foundation for people-to-people relations through education, tourism, and cultural exchange and can be established both by road and air.

Dr. Momen proposed that bilateral agreements like Trade Facilitation, Avoidance of Double Taxation, visa support, and other trade favorable measures would be the ground to ease and expedite the cooperation among our countries.

The Foreign Minister expressed gratitude to the Uzbek President for inviting them to participate in this very important International Conference and noted that today's conference has been organized at an appropriate time for expanding regional cooperation during the challenging pandemic period when the whole world requires coordinated efforts.

During the session Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres and the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev, as well as the Foreign Ministers of participating States and International financial organizations also addressed. Secretary-General of the UN also sent a video message.