Visiting Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Ali Sabry paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her official residence Ganabhaban on Friday.

In the meeting, the minister stressed the shipping and air connectivity between the two countries to boost trade relations and enhance people-to-people contacts, reports UNB.

Sheikh Hasina thanked him for attending just concluded the 22nd Ministerial Meeting of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) held in Dhaka.

She also wished good luck and speedy economic recovery of Sri Lanka.

Sheikh Hasina pointed out that the prolonged presence of more than one million forcibly displaced Rohingyas from Myanmar poses a serious threat to the overall socio-economy, environment, and security architecture in Bangladesh and the entire region.

She sought Sri Lanka’s support for the sustainable, safe, and voluntary repatriation of these forcibly displaced Myanmar nationals, Rohingyas, to their ancestral land in Rakhine State, Myanmar.

The Sri Lankan foreign minister expressed his admiration for the charismatic leadership of the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and commended recent socio-economic development and stability achieved by Bangladesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Bd-pratidin English/Golam Rosul