Argentina plans to open embassy in Dhaka
Argentina is actively considering to open its embassy in Bangladesh as the Latin American country is eager to strengthen economic and political relations with Bangladesh.
"We are actively considering opening of an embassy here next year. There are a lot of possibilities here. We want to have a mission as soon as possible. We think we must strengthen our commercial sector," said Claudio Javier Rozencwaig, undersecretary of Foreign Policy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship of Argentina.
He led a four-member delegation to Bangladesh on a three-day visit and held meetings with the State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and the Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industries (FBCCI).
During the visit, beginning Sunday, Bangladesh and Argentina signed a memorandum of understanding on the "Establishment of the Bilateral Consultations between Bangladesh and Argentina''.
Shabbir Ahmad Chowdhury, secretary (West) at the foreign ministry and Caludio Javier, undersecretary of Argentinian foreign ministry signed the MoU at the state guest house Padma yesterday.
Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and Argentine Ambassador to Bangladesh (resident in New Delhi) Hugo Gobbi witnessed the MOU signing ceremony.
As Shahriar Alam emphasised on cooperation between the two countries in the field of agriculture, the Argentine undersecretary informed that Argentina is open to exporting soyabean, beef and fertiliser to Bangladesh.
Both the sides acknowledged that the current world-wide crisis in the supply of fertiliser and energy might hamper the agricultural production further.
The delegation also met Tapan Kanti Ghosh, senior secretary of the commerce ministry and additional secretary Ruhul Amin Talukder from the agriculture ministry.
Ambassador Javier also spoke of possibility of signing preferential trade agreement between Bangladesh and MERCOSUR or Southern Common Market a trade bloc of South America.
Caludio also said the two countries can have talks on football cooperation at technical levels as Bangladesh is a football enthusiast country.
Bangladesh's export to Argentina is about $60 million, while import from Argentina is about $700 million.
"As Bangladesh is graduating out of LDC, we are exploring our markets. We will need to further study the market as we go forward," Shabbir Ahmad Chowdhury told The Daily Star.
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