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ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Sunday held wide-ranging talks with Bangladesh Foreign Adviser Touhid Hossain during which both sides discussed enhancing trade and economic cooperation as well as the resolution of the Palestine issue, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said. 

Dar arrived in Bangladesh on Saturday in the most high-profile visit by a Pakistani official to Dhaka in recent years. His visit comes as both countries move closer and attempt to forge stronger ties following the ouster of former premier Sheikh Hasina after a violent uprising in Bangladesh last year. 

His official trip follows months of increased contact between the two South Asian nations. Pakistan’s Commerce Minister Jam Kamal has been in Dhaka this week discussing trade and agricultural collaboration, while Pakistan’s foreign secretary Amna Baloch held the first bilateral consultations with Bangladesh in 15 years in April.

During their talks in Dhaka, Dar and Hossain reviewed bilateral ties, including high-level exchanges, trade and economic cooperation, people-to-people contacts, cultural exchanges, cooperation in education and capacity building, the Pakistani foreign office said. 

“Regional and international issues, including rejuvenation of SAARC [South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation] and resolution of Palestine and the Rohingya issues were also discussed,” the foreign office added. 

Pakistan has repeatedly condemned Israel for its military operations in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023, which have killed over 60,000 Palestinians in the densely populated strip. 

The statement said that talks between both sides took place in a “constructive atmosphere,” reflecting the goodwill between the two countries. 

“Both sides agreed to work for further strengthening of bilateral relations,” the foreign office said. 

Following delegation-level talks between the two sides, Pakistan and Bangladesh signed six agreements. The two sides signed an agreement on Visa Abolition for Diplomatic and Official Passport Holders, a memorandum of understanding on Joint Working Group on Trade and a memorandum of understanding between the Foreign Service Academies of Pakistan and Bangladesh. 

The two sides also signed an MoU between the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan Corporation and Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha, another MoU between the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad and the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies, and the Cultural Exchange Programme.

“These agreements will institutionalize and further strengthen the bilateral cooperation in trade and economics, training of diplomats, academic exchanges, media cooperation and cultural exchanges,” the Pakistani foreign office added. 

Earlier, the Pakistani deputy premier, along with Commerce Minister Jam Kamal, met Bangladesh’s Commerce Adviser Sheikh Bashir Uddin and other senior officials of Bangladesh’s state-owned institutions on Sunday. 

The foreign ministry said in-depth discussions were held on bilateral trade, investment and economic cooperation between the two sides. 

From the Bangladesh side, the governor of its central bank, the executive chairman of the Bangladesh Investment Development Authority, the chairman of the Bangladesh Trading Corporation and the chairman of the country’s civil aviation authority were present in the meeting. 

The Pakistan foreign ministry said the secretaries of commerce and aviation ministries of Bangladesh, along with the chairman of the National Board of Revenue, also attended the meeting. 

Pakistan and Bangladesh have attempted to decrease hostile ties ever since Hasina’s ouster last year, which created space for the two countries to reset ties. Pakistan and Bangladesh were one country until the 1971 war caused Bangladesh to secede from Pakistan. 

After arriving on Saturday, Dar met leaders of Bangladesh’s newly formed National Citizen Party (NCP), a student-led movement that spearheaded the protests that unseated Hasina.

The Pakistani deputy prime minister is scheduled to meet Bangladesh Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus as well during his two-day stay in Dhaka.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s latest aid consignment for Gaza arrived this week at the EL Arish International Airport in Egypt, state-run media reported amid fresh fears of famine gripping the densely populated territory. 

The consignment, measuring 100 tons of relief items, was dispatched via a chartered aircraft under Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s directives, state broadcaster Radio Pakistan said in a report, by the country’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) in collaboration with charity organization Al-Khidmat Foundation. 

Pakistan has been repeatedly dispatching humanitarian relief items to Gaza, which has been reeling from food shortages and starvation, according to the global hunger monitor Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). On Friday, the IPC warned that famine is occurring in northern Gaza, and is projected to spread to central and southern areas of the territory by the end of September.

“The total humanitarian assistance provided to Gaza residents by the government and people of Pakistan so far has reached 1,915 tons,” Radio Pakistan said in a report on Saturday. “More consignments are on their way and will be delivered in the coming days to Palestinians inside Gaza.”

It said officials from Pakistan’s embassy in Cairo received the relief consignment and handed it over to the Egyptian Red Crescent Society to dispatch it to Palestinian citizens inside Gaza. 

“The Government and people of Pakistan, with highly commendable contributions from Al-Khidmat Foundation, will continue to provide much-needed humanitarian assistance to their Palestinian brethren,” the report concluded. 

Pakistan does not recognize nor have diplomatic relations with Israel and calls for an independent Palestinian state based on “internationally agreed parameters” and the pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

Since the beginning of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023, Pakistan has repeatedly raised the issue of Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza at the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and other multilateral platforms and demanded international powers and bodies stop Israeli military actions in Gaza.

It has also called on the international community to force Israel to lift a blockade of aid supplies from reaching the population of Gaza. 

Israel’s military offensives have killed more than 62,000 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, since October 2023 as per figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.