Albania thanks Bangladesh for recognising Kosovo

Albania has thanked Bangladesh for recognising its neighbour Kosovo during a bilateral meeting in Tirana.

Senior CorrespondentReuters
Published : 19 Feb 2018, 03:07 AM
Updated : 19 Feb 2018, 03:07 AM

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam met his Albanian counterpart Etjen Xhafaj for talks on Saturday.

The official meeting was the first in quite a long time between the countries, the foreign ministry said.

Alam will lead the first-ever Bangladesh delegation to Kosovo after Dhaka officially recognised the country last year February.

Formal diplomatic relations were established through a signing of an agreement on Feb 16 this year in New York by the Permanent Representative of Bangladesh and the representative of Kosovo.

State minister Alam is also leading the delegation to Albania.

He briefed his Albanian counterpart of the recent social, political and infrastructure developments in Bangladesh under the leadership of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

In response, the Albanian minister stated that “the development of Bangladesh had been an issue to observe for all other similar countries and Albania could learn a great deal from the process Bangladesh adopted to turn it into a manufacturing export-oriented economy.”

“He profusely thanked the leadership of Bangladesh for recognising Kosovo which would help stabilise the situation in Balkan and brought peace for the people of the region,” the foreign ministry said.

The Albanian side also thanked Bangladesh for providing shelter to the Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar.

Both sides agreed to conclude few bilateral instruments to further strengthen their current relations.

They agreed to work together in various international fora for the mutual benefit of the both the countries.

Alam also met Foreign Minister of Kosovo Behgjet Pacolli, who expressed the sincere gratitude of his government to the government of Bangladesh for recognising Kosovo and providing support in different international fora.

Both of them agreed to work closely in future and emphasised the need to exchange more visits and conclusion of official instruments to strengthen the bilateral relations.

“Cooperation between the private sectors could be the beginning to start with and this could be further replicated in other bilateral sectors,” the foreign ministry said.

The State Minister of Bangladesh assured all supports in future for Kosovo.

Alam will also meet the President of Kosovo and the Speaker of the State Assembly of Kosovo during his visit.