POBNEWS24, Dhaka, 24 July 2022: The first round of Foreign Office Consultation (FOC) between Bangladesh and Kenya took place at Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka today (Sunday).
A 10 Member delegation led by the Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kenya joins this FOC. The delegation will also join meetings with government agencies and apex chambers and visit export processing zones and manufacturing industries in Bangladesh. The delegation comprises Additional Secretary of Foreign Ministry, High Commissioner of Kenya in New Delhi and other officials of Kenyan government. The consultation which was held at Foreign Service Academy was presided by Secretary (East) of Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Mashfee Binte Shams and Additional Secretary of Kenyan Foreign Ministry, Mr. Moi Lemoshira.
During the Foreign Office consultations, Mr. Lemoshira mentioned that the consultations will help in), identifying new areas of cooperation and strengthen the existing relations. He said that apart from diplomatic relations, the necessity of augmenting relations in trade and economic areas is increasingly felt. Both sides agreed to develop cooperation in areas like agriculture including contract farming, technical exchanges in IT, education, youth cooperation, air connectivity, blue economy, cooperation between investment authorities and food security.
Secretary, Ambassador Mashfee Binte Shams briefed the delegation on the remarkable socio-economic achievements of Bangladesh in the recent years. She mentioned that there may be exchanges of knowledge and training in agriculture, IT, women empowerment and UN peacekeeping areas. She also highlighted the importance of exchange of trade delegations.
The Kenyan side expressed interest to initiate cooperation between the Foreign Service Academies of the two countries. Mr. Lemoshira underlined establishing joint economic cooperation and signing of joint trade agreement.
Both sides also pledged to continue cooperation at bilateral and multilateral platforms like UN, CommonWealth and IORA. At the end of the meeting, Foreign Secretary, Mr. Masud Bin Momen on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Kenyan Head of delegation signed the MoUs on Bilateral Political consultations and cooperation between Foreign Service Academies.
