Riyadh and Dhaka share common values

On this very auspicious occasion of the 46th Independence and National Day of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, I convey my heartfelt congratulations and warm greetings to our respected members of the Bangladeshi community living in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
As we celebrate this great day, I pay my deep respects to the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who led the nation to achieve independence through a glorious War of Liberation in 1971.
I pay tribute to all the valiant freedom fighters for their supreme sacrifices for independence of our motherland. My deep respect is to the martyrs of the War of Liberation and all those millions of people who withstood all the sufferings in the war.
I would like to take this opportunity to express our deepest gratitude to King Salman for his generous support for Bangladesh.
We would also like to express our deep appreciation to the government of Saudi Arabia for a positive decision in employing workforce from Bangladesh.
The extraordinary kindness and generosity of King Salman and the brotherly people of Saudi Arabia to Bangladesh is always reverenced by the people and the government of Bangladesh.
We deeply appreciate the government and the people of Saudi Arabia for facilitating the Haj and Umrah pilgrimages with an increased number of our citizens this year. We also thank the government of Saudi Arabia for financing several developments projects in Bangladesh under SFD.
The visit of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to Saudi Arabia in June 2016 marked a milestone in Saudi-Bangladesh relations.
During the visit, the premier held fruitful talks with the king to further intensify relations between the two brotherly nations.
The prime minister assured all support and cooperation to Saudi Arabia, including the deployment of Bangladeshi soldiers to protect Two Holy sites of Islam as and when asked for. These excellent relations between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia may be attributed to the fact that both countries share common perspectives, values and commitments.
The Saudi government has launched “Saudi Vision 2030” which offers Bangladesh the potential to look at new areas of engagement and cooperation.
Similarly, Bangladesh’s Vision 2021 (of emergence as a middle-income country) and Vision 2041 (of emergence as a developed country) provides a fast-growing economic opportunity for Saudi nationals to invest and do business with beneficial terms.
Bangladesh, one of the major countries contributing troops to UN peace keeping operations around the globe, has been playing an active role in peace building and promotion of democracy in war-torn countries.
Bangladesh’s enlightened and forward looking foreign policy had made the country an important role player in the UN, Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Commonwealth and other international and regional organizations. Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia can work together for global peace and stability through UN and OIC.
 We hope to build our relations on the achievements of these recent productive engagements to set up a future of even closer co-operation and understanding both at bilateral and multilateral levels between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia.
We would like to see the peoples of both countries to herald a defining moment of raising our relationship to a new height in the coming days, particularly with more trade and investment between the two brotherly countries.
 On this day, I would call upon all the members of Bangladesh community to continue their valuable support to accelerate the socio-economic developments of our beloved motherland and to further strengthen the excellent relationship that exists between our two brotherly countries.
Joi Bangla.
Joi Bangabandhu.