On October 14, 2016 local time, President Xi Jinping held talks in Dhaka with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh. Both sides spoke positively of China-Bangladesh traditional friendship and progress achieved from bilateral cooperation in all fronts, exchanged in-depth views and reached broad consensus on bilateral relations as well as international and regional issues of common concern, and agreed to establish China-Bangladesh strategic partnership of cooperation, so as to continuously move forward bilateral relationship at higher levels.
Xi Jinping pointed out that since the establishment of diplomatic relations 41 years ago, China and Bangladesh have always developed bilateral relations based on the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, and respected and supported each other in choosing the development path and domestic and foreign policies in accordance with respective national conditions. China-Bangladesh relations have yielded substantial progress in recent years. The closer comprehensive cooperative partnership the two sides forged in 2010 has yielded fruitful results, with bilateral cooperation seeing steady progress in political, economic, trade, cultural and security areas and on international and regional affairs. China attaches great importance to enhancing its friendly cooperative relationship with Bangladesh and will continue to offer support within its capacity to the economic and social development of the country. China and Bangladesh are now striving for their respective blueprints of "two centenary goals" and "Sonar Bangla" dream. The China-proposed "Belt and Road" initiative can closely dovetail with Bangladesh's cooperation strategies with the outside world. China is willing to work with Bangladesh to be friends and partners that trust and support each other along the development path, so as to push bilateral practical cooperation for even richer fruits and inject stronger impetus into the development of China-Bangladesh relationship.
Sheikh Hasina noted that the traditional friendship between Bangladesh and China, forged by the two countries' leaders of the older generation, enjoys deeply-rooted public support in Bangladesh. Bangladesh admires China's development achievements very much, and is ready to strengthen cooperation with China while pursuing its "Sonar Bangla" dream. Bangladesh is willing to accelerate development in such areas as electricity, energy, technology, agriculture, water conservancy, investment, transportation infrastructure and connectivity by actively participating in the "Belt and Road" construction and supporting the construction of the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor. Bangladesh resolutely adheres to the one-China policy and is ready to maintain mutual understanding and support with the Chinese side on issues involving each other's core interests and major concerns.
Both leaders drew a blueprint for the future development of bilateral relations, agreeing to elevate China-Bangladesh relations to a strategic partnership of cooperation, push bilateral traditional friendship to a new high and make bilateral friendly cooperation bring more benefits to the two peoples.
Both sides agreed to deepen political mutual trust, enhance high-level interaction, strengthen exchanges and cooperation at various levels between governments, legislative bodies, political parties, and peoples of the two countries and maintain respect and support on each other's core interests and major concerns.
Both sides agreed to enhance the alignment of the development strategies of the two countries, fully tap the potential of cooperation in various areas, work on the "Belt and Road" construction, reinforce cooperation within the framework of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, expand the scale of bilateral trade, build a new cooperation layout of major project with a focus on such fields as infrastructure construction, production capacity cooperation, energy and power, transportation, information and communication and agriculture, and deepen cooperation in maritime affairs, water conservancy, technology and other emerging fields.
Both countries agreed to strengthen people-to-people and cultural exchanges and carry forward bilateral traditional friendship. Both sides agreed to set the year 2017 as the Year of Friendship and Exchanges between China and Bangladesh, hold colorful exchange events, boost cooperation in culture, education, tourism and other areas, intensify communication and interaction between media outlets, youth, women and local governments, and facilitate personnel exchanges between the two countries.
Both sides expressed their willingness to ramp up cooperation in the UN and other international organizations, beef up coordination and cooperation in development, energy, food security and other global agendas, and strengthen bilateral and multilateral cooperation within the framework of South-South cooperation, so as to promote regional connectivity, development and prosperity. Both sides are ready to jointly promote the construction of Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor.
After their talks, the two leaders witnessed the signing of a number of cooperation documents covering such areas as the joint building of the "Belt and Road" initiative, production capacity cooperation, information and telecommunication, energy and power, diplomacy, maritime affairs, disaster prevention and alleviation and climate change, and attended the unveiling ceremony of major cooperation projects between the two countries.
The two leaders also met the press together.
The two countries issued the Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the People's Republic of Bangladesh on Establishing Strategic Partnership of Cooperation.
Wang Huning, Li Zhanshu, Yang Jiechi and others were present at above events.