Bangladesh seeks Saudi support to meet energy demand

State Minister for foreign affairs Md Shahriar Alam has said Bangladesh needs "brotherly support" from Saudi Arabia to fulfil its energy demands amid the global oil crisis due to the Russia-Ukraine war.

He made the remark while Saudi Arabian Ambassador to Bangladesh Essa Yousef Essa Al Duhailan paid a courtesy call on him at the foreign ministry here on Monday, a foreign ministry press release said.

In reply, the envoy assured that he would take up the oil supply issue with the concerned Saudi stakeholders, reports BSS.

During the meeting, the Ambassador expressed satisfaction at the state of excellent bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia which is growing rapidly in various fields including political, economic, defence, manpower, business, trade and investment.

The envoy apprised the State Minister about the follow-up of the visit by the Saudi Deputy Interior Minister to Dhaka in last November 2022.

He also updated him about the increasing engagement of Saudi investors in various fields including potential Saudi investment in the EEZ earmarked for Saudi Arabia.   

Alam stated that his office was ready to push forward any issues/proposals from the Saudi side in making headways.

The Saudi Envoy also apprised the Minister about the recent terrorist activities conducted by the Houthis in the Arab peninsula despite the ceasefire.

He appreciated the role of Bangladesh in supporting Saudi Arabia and in denouncing terrorism against the Houthis.

The State Minister underlined the need to engage more efforts to scale up bilateral collaboration with Saudi Arabia beyond the traditional labour market and Hajj and Umrah.

He stated that Saudi Arabia was playing a more visible role in multilateral fora which is encouraging for the Muslim Ummah.

Alam stressed the need for expanding collaboration in the new and emerging areas through time-bound and target-oriented roadmap and expedite pending investment agenda and new areas of collaboration.