DHAKA: Canadian High Commissioner Heather Cruden paid a courtesy call on Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali, MP at the latter’s office on Tuesday.

Heather Cruden expressed her happiness on re-assumption of the office by the minister and discussed on various bilateral issues between Bangladesh and Canada.

Mentioning that the government has successfully brought back normalcy in public life, she enquired whether the Government has any plan to initiate a dialogue with the political parties particularly those boycotted the last parliament election for ending violence and for adopting a political mechanism acceptable to everyone.

Foreign Minister reiterated the Government’s commitment to uphold the sanctity of the constitution for the sake of institutionalizing the democracy, and said that like all other societies, Bangladesh also has its own mechanism of establishing equilibrium in the society.

Bangladesh is progressing towards that equilibrium which involves polity, society, country and its people. He stressed that it might look different to the other nations because every country has its own means of development.

He said that when violence turns to terrorism, the State has no other option but to act against that. The Canadian High Commissioner said that the Foreign Minister of Canada and the Canadian Government always condemned the violence in the strongest possible terms.


The High Commissioner praised the regular meetings between a number of secretaries and the heads of diplomatic missions on RMG related issues and said that those meetings were very constructive.

She added that her Government has given Canadian $8 million to the ILO for implementing projects in Bangladesh which would assist overhauling of the RMG sector.

She also praised the Government for preparing a strategy to deal with Myanmar refugees in Bangladesh.

The Foreign Minister thanked the Canadian Government for extending its financial assistance to Bangladesh and said that the international community should encourage Myanmar to address and resolve the refugee issue within Myanmar as that had its origin there.

Foreign Minister informed that the Government of Bangladesh, under the active supervision of Prime Minister did everything possible to extend relief, rehabilitation and compensation to the victims of Rana Plaza disaster. However, in this regard, he urged the international buyers to fulfill their commitment too.

BDST: 1745 HRS, APR 08, 2014