Dhaka postpones PMs Japan tour, not Tokyo: Momen

Dhaka postpones PMs Japan tour, not Tokyo: Momen, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s planned visit to Japan was postponed for a number of reasons, according to Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen today, not Tokyo.

Dhaka postpones PMs Japan tour, not Tokyo: Momen

“We did (postpone the trip) it, not they (Tokyo) … Japan is ready to welcome us … but considering different factors we thought it would be very difficult (to make the trip this time),” he told journalists after attending a seminar at a city hotel here. The foreign-minister said Japan is one of the closest friends of Bangladesh and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will surely visit Tokyo soon.

Momen said Dhaka considered the ongoing internal political problem with the Japanese government and Japan’s mandatory quarantine due to Covid-19 related restrictions as reasons behind the decision of postponement.   “We wanted to go to Japan this time. They requested us repeatedly. It was finalised. But considering all these things, we have postponed it,” he said.

According to him, Tokyo had extended an invitation to Bangladesh more than two years prior, but the Covid-19 pandemic prevented the visit from happening. When Foreign Minister Momen visited Japan in September of this year, the Japanese side emphasized the importance of the visit’s finalization once more. An international workshop hosted by the Association of Surgeons for Sleep Apnea, Bangladesh, was officially opened by the foreign minister in a city hotel.