Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh are attuned in their joint vision of the future, says Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, adding that the two countries were eager to work together for the security and stability of their respective regions and the world.

Prince Faisal led a Saudi delegation in high-level talks with Bangladeshi officials at Dhaka’s Pan Pacific Sonargaon hotel on Wednesday. “We are very proud of our brotherly relations with Bangladesh and we are very optimistic about the future of this relationship,” he said after the meeting. “We had an excellent round of political consultation this morning.”

“Most importantly, we explored how we can expand our partnership. We have a historically strong relationship. We are brotherly nations and we already work very closely.” Some 2.5 million Bangladeshis already live, work and contribute to the developmental journey of Saudi Arabia, he said, and Saudi companies are already present in Bangladesh and have contributed several billion dollars of direct investment, Prince Faisal said.

“We are committed to building on this strong foundation to a much, much broader partnership in our bilateral relationship.” “We are extremely optimistic about the future of Bangladesh, we see a significant interest from Saudi companies to be present here in Bangladesh and we are working together with our partners to expand that cooperation to expand the potential that exists between our two countries.”

During the talks, a clear agenda was laid out in collaboration with Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, who led the Bangladeshi delegation,” Prince Faisal said. The two sides spoke on a number of issues including business, investment and military support during the meeting.

The two foreign ministers met one-on-one at the same location before a joint consultation with larger delegations. Following the talks, Prince Faisal will launch the construction of an Arabic Language Institute in Keraniganj via videoconferencing. He is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the afternoon before leaving for the Gulf state.

SAUDI COMMITTED TO STABLE OIL MARKET: PRINCE FAISAL

Despite the recent disruption of the oil market caused by the war in Ukraine, Saudi Arabia will ensure the supply of oil to Bangladesh will be stable, Prince Faisal assured. “We are committed to a stable oil market,” Prince Faisal said in response to a question from the media following the meeting.

“There is no concern regarding the supply of oil.” Saudi Arabia is the second largest oil producer in the world. It produces about 11 million barrels of crude oil per day, or about 11 percent of the world’s total.

The Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation imports about 700,000 tonnes of light crude from Saudi Arabian state company Aramco every year. Russia, the third largest oil producer in the world, exports nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil a day, most of which goes to Europe.

But, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the price of oil on the world market shot past $100 a barrel for the first time since 2014 on Feb 24.  As the US and other nations imposed sanctions on Russia, the price of oil rose to $139 a barrel, the highest since 2008.

Though the price of oil has now dropped down to around $100 a barrel once again, the market remains unstable. Bangladeshis have been concerned about the effects of a lengthy war on the price of oil, inflation and oil supply.