Chinese foreign minister to visit Bangladesh August 6-7

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is likely to visit Bangladesh first week of next month to discuss ways to further strengthening Dhaka-Beijing bilateral relations, official sources said on Friday.

The visit is scheduled for August 6-7, said the officials familiar with the development.

The Chinese foreign minister is likely to meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina apart from his bilateral meeting with his Bangladesh counterpart AK Abdul Momen to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues, reports UNB.

The visit is taking place amid geopolitical tensions and conflict between Ukraine and Russia.

Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming met Momen on Sunday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and discussed various issues of mutual interest including the proposed visit of the Chinese foreign minister.

Momen told reporters on Friday said he will be happy to receive Wang noting that the visit has been finalised.

He trashed some local media reports that he gave more importance to his upcoming visit to Cambodia than receiving the Chinese foreign minister in Dhaka.

The Chinese side initially proposed August 5-6 for the visit but Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s Bangladesh counterpart Momen has prescheduled engagement abroad at that time.

"I proposed to shift the visit by a day or two if he could delay. That's what I said. Nothing else," Momen said, adding that this is a normal thing to find a date convenient to both through mutual discussion.

"That is why it is discussed. So it’s not an issue that will come to the media. This is very surprising," the foreign minister said.

"The Chinese Foreign Minister is a very respectable man, very close to me. He will come here. I said that the Chinese foreign minister will come to my city and I will not receive him or I will not be able to meet him, it does not look good," he told reporters expressing displeasure over a section of media reports quoting him.

Wang is a member of the 19th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, State Councilor and a member of the Leading CPC Members Group of the State Council.