On Friday, Turkish President Abdullah Gul arrived to Bangladesh on a two-day state visit. Zillur Rahman, the President of Bangladesh, received the Turkish President at the Zia International Airport.
President Abdullah Gul has met with Dipu Moni, the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, and he will meet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader Khaleda Zia later in the day. He will leave Dhaka in late afternoon on Saturday.
He said trade between Dhaka, the capital city of Bangladesh and Ankara, the capital city of Turkey, can be doubled to more than a billion dollars. He said that Turkey wants to maintain good political, military, and international relations with Dhaka. For decades, Turkey, a Muslim majority country has been trying to gain European Union membership, and it has recently began efforts to strengthen relations with the Muslim world, including Bangladesh.
President Abdullah Gul is leading a 210-member delegation, which includes Turkey’s Minister of State, Minister of Health and Minister of Transportation, high ranking bureaucrats, and about 80 leading businessmen. This is the first visit to Bangladesh made by a Turkish President in the last 13 years. The last time a Turkish President visited Bangladesh was in 1997.