Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi may come to Dhaka early next month. China’s ambassador to Dhaka, Li Ziming, discussed the matter with Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen on Sunday. AK Abdul Momen proposed to change the schedule as the foreign minister will not be in Dhaka during the tour schedule proposed by China in the discussion.

According to the diplomatic sources of Dhaka, Beijing has proposed the visit of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi to Dhaka on August 5 and 6. He will go to Mongolia from Dhaka. When asked, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told Prothom Alo over the phone, “Beijing has informed that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi wants to come to Dhaka on August 5 and 6.” I am not living in Dhaka at that time. So if they change the itinerary, we will welcome the Chinese Foreign Minister.

It is known that Chinese Ambassador Li Ziming had a courtesy meeting with AK Abdul Momen yesterday regarding the finalization of the visit of the Foreign Minister of his country. Five member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Mongolia; Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has planned to come to Dhaka as part of his visit to ‘Friendly Countries’ including Bangladesh. He will go to Ulaanbaatar after visiting Dhaka on August 5 and 6.

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen will be in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh at that time to attend the 29th meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in Cambodia. In this situation, it has been suggested that the Chinese foreign minister can visit Ulaanbaatar instead of Dhaka; That is if the foreign minister of China changes the itinerary, the foreign minister of Bangladesh will return to Dhaka on August 6 instead of August 7.

This visit will be the visit of China’s foreign minister to Dhaka after almost five years. In November 2017, while going to Africa, he stopped for a few hours in Dhaka while taking fuel on the plane. Wang Yi was then Foreign Secretary. Had a discussion with Shahidul Haque on the plane. That was Wang Yi’s stop three months after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s historic visit to Dhaka.

According to diplomatic sources, the visit to Dhaka proposed by the Chinese foreign minister is very important in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and geopolitical context. Besides strategic cooperation between the two countries, China is interested in discussions with Bangladesh on the global political and economic crisis. The progress of the implementation of the 27 agreements and memorandums of understanding executed by the two countries will be reviewed in the discussion. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Myanmar this month to attend the ministerial meeting of the Lanchang-Mekong Cooperation Alliance. And when he comes to Dhaka in August, the issue of Rohingya repatriation will be emphasized very naturally. In particular, China is insisting on starting the repatriation of 1,500 Rohingya under a pilot project.