Australia pledges more assistance for deeper economic engagement

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong on Tuesday pledged to have "deeper cooperation" with Bangladesh on key fronts and address the shared challenges of climate change, regional maritime security and people smuggling.
"One of the things we want to do is to have deeper cooperation between our coastguards…..we understand it is a shared challenge," she said while responding to a question from UNB at a joint briefing at state guesthouse Padma, reports UNB.
Earlier, she had separate meetings with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud at Gonobhaban and state guesthouse Padma respectively.
The Australian FM said her country is working with Bangladesh to deepen their cooperation, including on trade and investment, and to find practical solutions to shared challenges such as climate change, regional maritime security and people smuggling.
"We share a region. We share an Ocean and we share a future. And we are determined to do what we can to work with you and other partners to make sure the region is peaceful, stable and prosperous," she said.
The Australian minister said they understand the importance of the international rules and norms and they are deepening the economic relationship.
He pledged additional funding and assistance in a number of areas for deeper economic engagement, economic reforms and addressing graduation-related challenges.
"We are working on practical solutions for shared challenges. All of these challenges, we understand, cannot be dealt with by a single country. It requires partnership and collaboration," Penny Wong said.
She mentioned that they are very committed to deepen their cooperation and to strengthen collaboration with the government of Bangladesh.
Wong highlighted Bangladesh's initiatives on the climate front and vowed to work together in that area.
Both sides noted "significant" people to people link and cooperation in the education sector. Australia and Bangladesh have significant people-to-people links, with over 50,000 people in Australia born in Bangladesh.
Foreign Minister Hasan said this is the first visit by any Australian FM in the last 26 years. "We had a very good discussion. Bangladesh and Australia are having a very good relationship. Australia has contributed a lot."
He said the two-way trade now stands at around $4.0bn, reflecting Bangladesh's significant economic growth. "This is quite impressive. The trade volume was much smaller in size ten years ago."
Hasan said the Australian FM assured him of continuing the duty-free and quota-free market access to Australia.
They talked about more Australian investment in Bangladesh, cooperation for skill development with more Australian assistance.
"We have talked about human trafficking and we have agreed to work together. We have talked about climate challenges as Bangladesh is an innocent victim of climate change," said Hasan.
The Australian FM, who arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday morning on a two-day official visit, will travel to Cox's Bazar on Wednesday morning to see the situation in Rohingya camps.
"I will also travel to Cox's Bazar, where I will see how Australia's humanitarian assistance is delivering practical support to displaced Rohingya and Bangladeshi host communities," Wong said.
Australia's humanitarian assistance is part of a global effort to address the causes of displacement, find durable solutions, and ultimately allow Rohingya to realise their goal of returning to their homeland, according to the Australian High Commission in Dhaka.
The two countries are scheduled to hold the 5th Foreign Office Consultation (FOC) in Australia next month, said an official. The 4th FOC was held in Dhaka in March last year.