China announced on Thursday that Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will visit Beijing early next week and meet with top Chinese leaders including President Xi Jinping, facilitating mutual political trust and boosting bilateral relations to a new level.
Hasina’s July 8-10 visit, days after her India visit, is being seen as an apparent attempt to balance ties between India and China, one of Dhaka’s biggest investors.
“This is Hasina’s first visit to China since her new term began. It is also her second visit to China in five years,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Mao Ning told a news conference here.
During his visit, he will meet with President Xi and Premier Li Qiang and attend the signing ceremony of cooperation documents together, Mao said.
Leaders of the two countries will have an “in-depth exchange of views” on deepening traditional friendship, expanding mutually beneficial cooperation and international and regional issues of common concern, the spokesperson said, adding that Hasina will also attend the China-Bangladesh Business Trade and Investment Conference.
“The visit will facilitate political mutual trust, strengthen development strategies, promote high-quality joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative, accelerate the implementation of the three major global initiatives, and push China-Bangladesh relations to a new level,” Mao said.
Hasina’s visit to China was expected to focus on increasing Chinese investments in Bangladesh under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a multi-country infrastructure project and China-led project. After Pakistan, Bangladesh is the largest recipient of Chinese investments, estimated at over $25 billion.
Hasina’s visit to Beijing follows her trip to New Delhi last month, as well as her attendance at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony for his third term, signifying closer ties between India and Bangladesh.
Following their talks with Modi on June 22, both sides decided to work on a mega project to conserve and manage the transboundary Teesta river, besides moving forward to start negotiations on a comprehensive trade pact and boost defence ties.
Incidentally, China has also shown interest in building a mega project on the Teesta river.
After returning from her visit to India, Hasina said Bangladesh would evaluate the proposals from both India and China for the mega project and accept the best one for the country.
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