Tarique Rahman to meet Xi Jinping on Friday

In the most important part of his China visit, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday. Diplomatic observers see the much-awaited meeting as an important step in further advancing bilateral relations between the two countries.

At a press conference in Beijing, Prime Minister's Office spokesperson Mahdi Amin said the meeting will be held at 10:30am local time (8:30am Bangladesh time) on Thursday. He said the prime minister will meet with the Chinese president at the historic Great Hall of the People on the concluding day of the visit, where he will raise various issues related to Bangladesh's interests.

Mahdi Amin said, "I hope these discussions will bring positive results, which will further consolidate the development and progress of the people of Bangladesh."

Friday's program also includes a meeting with Zhao Lijie, Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, at the Great Hall in the morning and a visit to a Chinese museum. After all the programs, the Prime Minister and her entourage will leave Beijing for Dhaka at 5pm local time.

The Prime Minister is accompanied by a 24-member delegation on this visit, including Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman, Information and Broadcasting Minister Zahir Uddin Swapon, Water Resources Minister Shahid Uddin Chowdhury Anee, State Minister for Energy and Power Anindya Islam Amit, State Minister for Civil Aviation Rashiduzzaman Millat and Advisors to the Prime Minister Humayun Kabir, AKM Shamsul Islam and Rashed Al Mahmud Titumir, among others.

Tarique Rahman went to Malaysia on June 21 on his first foreign visit as Prime Minister after the BNP won the 13th National Parliament elections and formed the government. After completing the formalities of that visit, he reached the northeastern city of Dalian in China on Monday, where he participated in the World Economic Forum conference. After that phase, he reached Beijing on Wednesday afternoon, and the main phase of his state visit began.

This is Tarique Rahman's first visit to China as Prime Minister. Earlier, in 2001, he visited China as a traveling companion of the then Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia.

Tarique Rahman also held a bilateral meeting with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang at the Great Hall of the People on Thursday. Bangladesh-China relations, trade, investment, infrastructure development and various issues of mutual interest were discussed in that meeting. After the meeting, several memorandums of understanding (MoUs) were signed between the two countries in various fields of cooperation.