The bondage between the ASEAN countries and Bangladesh is “much stronger” and the 10-countries grouping “stands ready” to support Dhaka at any natural calamity or difficulty.
Outgoing chair of the ASEAN Dhaka committee Thai ambassador Arunrung Phothong Humphreys made the comment on Wednesday while handing over personal protective equipment and a ventilator to Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen, the foreign ministry said.
Phothong Humphreys said that the “depth of Bangladesh’s ties with the ASEAN countries could not be measured by the token items donated today”.
Ambassador of Vietnam and current chair of ASEAN Dhaka Committee Pham Viet Chien and High Commissioner of Brunei Darussalam, upcoming chair, Haji Haris bin Othman were also present during the ceremony.
The ASEAN, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a regional grouping that promotes economic, political, and security cooperation among its ten members: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Bangladesh being a South Asian country is not a member of the grouping which is a highly integrated region.
But given the importance of Bangladesh in the region, the ASEAN ambassadors maintain a ‘Dhaka Committee’.
Foreign Secretary Momen thanked the ASEAN Dhaka Committee for their donation and said “because of geographical, historical and cultural proximity to each other, people from Bangladesh and the ASEAN countries closely inter-mingle with each other.”
He said that ASEAN countries are gaining importance because of increasing trade, investment, overseas employment and higher studies.
He also thanked the ASEAN governments for extending support to the Bangladesh diaspora during the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic.
The Foreign Secretary noted that when all international flights were suspended due to COVID-19, good number of flights operated between Bangladesh and the South East Asian capitals.
On behalf of the ASEAN troika, the Thai Ambassador also appreciated the various measures taken by the government of Bangladesh to combat COVID-19 and expressed the hope that COVID-19 vaccine would soon be available to the global community.
During the ceremony, on behalf of the Vietnam Community in Bangladesh and the Vietnam Embassy, Ambassador Pham Viet Chien separately handed over some surgical masks to the Foreign Secretary.
The items were handed over to the representative of the Central Police Hospital, Dhaka, the foreign ministry said.
Additional Foreign Secretary and COVID-19 Coordinator of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr. Khalilur Rahman was also present at the handing over ceremony.
