Ban on direct air cargo to UK will go soon

The two-year-long standing ban on Bangladesh’s direct air cargo to Britain will be going away soon.

Visiting British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Boris Johnson made the announcement today after meeting Bangladesh Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali.

“It is all but done. Bangladesh government has made huge efforts in this regard. We are very pleased,” he told journalists at a joint press briefing at the end of his meeting with Minister Ali.

He did not specify further, but meeting sources said “only some bureaucratic formalities” now stand in the way.

The two sat in bilateral talks at state guest house Padma around 7:45pm after the British envoy completed a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina this evening, hours after he landed in Dhaka.

British High Commissioner to Dhaka Alison Blake was also present in the meeting.

The visit takes place after 10 years. Former British foreign secretary David Miliband visited Dhaka in 2008.

Tomorrow, the British official will visit Rohingya camps in Cox's Bazar, and the focus of his visit would be to demonstrate UK's solidarity with Bangladesh over the Rohingya issue.