Bangladesh Saudi Deal: Bangladesh Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmood is on a visit to Saudi Arabia. During a meeting with his Saudi counterpart in the capital Jeddah, he sought Saudi support for crude oil imports.
Let us tell you that Bangladesh is going through an economic crisis and the government is looking towards Saudi Arabia to deal with the economic challenges. Apart from this, Hassan Mahmood also participated in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting held in Jeddah on the Gaza crisis. Dozens of foreign ministers of countries associated with OIC participated in this meeting.
After meeting Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan, Bangladesh Foreign Minister expressed his satisfaction over the meeting and expressed hope of help from Saudi. The deputy manager of BPC (Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation) told the media that Bangladesh is struggling to pay for oil due to its declining foreign exchange reserves. In such a situation, the cooperation received from Saudi Arabia will prove helpful.
Bangladesh’s oil export from Saudi
According to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation, which controls the country’s oil exports, Bangladesh fulfills most of its oil needs through imports. The country needs about 1.5 million metric tons of crude oil annually to meet its oil needs.
#Jeddah | Foreign Minister HH Prince @FaisalbinFarhan met with Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, Dr. Mohammed Hasan Mahmud, on the sidelines of the Extraordinary Session of the @OIC_OCI Council of Foreign Ministers on the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. pic.twitter.com/eRCY3v77rw
— Foreign Ministry 🇸🇦 (@KSAmofaEN) March 5, 2024
After the meeting, the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh expressed satisfaction over the diplomatic relations between the two countries and expressed hope that relations between the two countries will become stronger in the future. Bangladesh Foreign Ministry has also talked about increasing cooperation between the two countries in its statement and said that Foreign Minister Mahmood has also sought help from Saudi in purchasing crude oil.
Bangladesh currently imports about 700,000 metric tonnes of crude oil from Saudi Aramco and has so far managed to make timely payments to the Saudi with the help of funds from the Jeddah-based International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation. The BPC official said, if we can defer the payment for more than 30 days, we will be able to use this ITF fund to import other petroleum products. Therefore, this will reduce our financial burden to some extent.”
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