General Secretary of the ruling Awami League and LGRD Minister Syed Ashraful Islam on Monday said China is a close friend of Bangladesh now and Dhaka wants to deepen further the existing relations with Beijing.
“Though there were some sort of setbacks in the relations between Bangladesh and China during the days of the War of Liberation, a friendly relation now exists between the two countries, which will be cemented further in future,” he said.
Syed Ashraf told this to reporters emerging from a meeting with a delegation of the Communist Party of China (CPC) at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel in the city. A six-member CPC delegation is now on a visit to Bangladesh at the invitation of Awami League.
Earlier, a team of Awami League stalwarts had a meeting with the visiting delegation of the International Department of the CPC central committee led by its vice-minister Guo Yezhou at the same venue. The other members of the CPC delegation are An Yuejun, deputy director general, Yang Chen, deputy director, Zhou Rong Shui, second secretary, Chen Bin, second secretary and Li Yuanxing, assistant secretary of the International Department of the CPC central committee.
Apart from Syed Ashraful Islam, Awami League was represented at the meeting by its joint general secretary Mahbub-ul-Alam Hanif, secretariat members Faridunnahar Laily, Col (Retd) Faruque Khan and Asim Kumar Ukil and central working committee member SM Kamal Hossain.
Syed Ashraf said, “Our involvement with China has not only increased in the field of politics but also in the fields of economy, social and other areas. Bangalees have many things in common with the tradition of the people of China.”
