On October 14, 2016 local time, President Xi Jinping met in Dhaka with Chairperson of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) Khaleda Zia.
Xi Jinping pointed out that with close geographic distance, China and Bangladesh enjoy solid political foundation and highly complementary economy. Thanks to the joint efforts of the successive governments of the two countries and the two peoples, China-Bangladesh relations have maintained the momentum of rapid development. The Chinese side attaches great importance to its relations with Bangladesh, and stands ready to strengthen cooperation with the country and assist it in advancing industrialization, enhancing infrastructure construction and improving people's livelihood. The two sides should expand people-to-people and cultural exchanges, so as to pass on the friendship to the next generations and open up a new and broad prospect for the development of China-Bangladesh relations.
Xi Jinping appreciated that the BNP has firmly maintained a friendly policy towards China for years and actively promoted the development of China-Bangladesh relations. He stressed that the Chinese side is ready to, together with the BNP and other major political parties of Bangladesh, strengthen inter-party contacts and exchanges of experiences on party building, so as to increase mutual understanding.
Khaleda Zia said that Bangladesh and China enjoy time-honored friendship, and China has been one of the closest friends and partners of Bangladesh. Always advocating a positive attitude towards its relations with China, the BNP is pleased to see that the two countries have rendered mutual understanding in politics and carried out effective cooperation in such areas as energy and infrastructure construction. The BNP appreciates China's "Belt and Road" initiative, and supports Bangladesh in enhancing cooperation with China in the fields of trade and economy, investment and connectivity construction within the frameworks of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Economic Corridor. The BNP is ready to strengthen communication with the Communist Party of China.
Wang Huning, Li Zhanshu, Yang Jiechi and others were present at the meeting.