Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Food signed a MoU with the state-owned Trading Corporation of Pakistan in January for rice imports
“Bangladesh and Pakistan have started direct government-to-government trade after decades of troubled relations with imports of 50,000 tonnes of rice,” Dhaka said Tuesday, February 25, 2025.
The two countries were once one nation but split in a brutal 1971 war, with Bangladesh drawing closer to India.
However, long-time Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted in an August 2024 revolution, fleeing by helicopter to her old ally India, where she has defied extradition requests to face charges of crimes against humanity.
Relations between India and Bangladesh's new government have been frosty since then, allowing Islamabad and Dhaka to rebuild ties slowly.
Direct private trade between the countries restarted in November 2024, when a container ship sailed from Pakistan's Karachi to Bangladesh's Chittagong.
It was the first cargo ship in decades to sail directly between the countries.
"For the first time we are importing 50,000 tons of rice from Pakistan, and it is the first government-to-government deal between the two countries," Ziauddin Ahmed, a senior official at the food ministry in Dhaka, said Tuesday, February 26, 2025.
Bangladesh's Directorate General of Food signed a memorandum of understanding with the state-owned Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) in January for rice imports.
Mr. Ahmed said trade with Pakistan offers a "new avenue of sourcing and competitive pricing", with state authorities in recent years importing the staple from India, Thailand and Vietnam.
© Copyright 2025 The SSResource Media.
All rights reserved.