DHAKA : Today marks the 53rd Independence and National Day of Bangladesh. On this auspicious occasion, on behalf of the people of Bangladesh, I would like to extend our best wishes and warmest greetings to the friendly people of Sri Lanka and share our joy and happiness. It was in the same spirit that our Foreign Minister came to Sri Lanka to share your joy during your 75th Independence Day celebration last month.
On this day in 1971, our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared independence. Bangladesh eventually emerged as an independent and sovereign nation under his astute leadership. We pay our deepest homage to him as well as to our millions of martyrs, freedom fighters and war heroines for their sacrifice. They will remain as the eternal source of inspiration in our journey towards development, peace, and prosperity.
Sri Lanka recognized Bangladesh shortly after its independence on March 4, 1972 which remains as a landmark in our bilateral relations. We are grateful to Sri Lanka, it’s people and the leadership. Ever since, Bangladesh-Sri Lanka relationship has been all about friendship, goodwill and good neighbourliness. And it is growing.
Today, Bangladesh stands tall in the comity of nations as a responsible member which is making significant development strides under the pragmatic leadership of Hon’ble Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. We deeply value Sri Lanka’s partnership in this incredible journey.
Our two nations enjoy so many things in common: common historical legacy, shared culture and values, similar aspirations, and even identical development challenges. The affinity between our two peoples is at the core of our relationship.
We help each other in our own beautiful ways. We are sharing our best practices and development experiences. We tried in our humble ways to support Sri Lanka during its challenging time of the past two years by providing currency SWAP facilities and essential medicines. These symbolic gestures were purely out of our sense of obligation to ensuring a shared prosperity. We are trying to strengthen our trade relations which can help Sri Lanka’s economic recovery. We are striving for further collaboration in connectivity, education, people-to-people contact, investment, public health, agriculture, tourism, defence and combating global common threats such as climate change, terrorism, and pandemic. Yet there are much more to achieve.
The turn of 50 years of our relationship gives us satisfaction for what we have achieved and the path we have traveled together. It also provides us with a solid foundation for our partnership in the next century and beyond. Building on that, we are exploring new avenues such as maritime domain and blue economy to add content and dynamism to our collaboration.
I am looking forward to making our journey ahead more beneficial and meaningful for achieving greater prosperity for our two peoples.
Joi Bangla!
May Bangladesh-Sri Lanka friendship live forever!
