China renews invitation to PM to visit at the soonest: FM

China has invited Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to visit China at the soonest possible time.

"China earlier extended invitation to our Prime Minister. Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh renewed that invitation today," Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud told reporters after a meeting with Chinese Ambassador Yao Wen today.

"We will find out a suitable time for the visit," he told reporters.

Hasan Mahmud said China is working with Myanmar's authorities for Rohingya repatriation.

It is not a very favourable time for repatriation but it is expected that the repatriation will start soon, he said.

"In fact, there was always some sort of problems in Myanmar, and we hope that the tension that is there in Myanmar now will be normal soon. We can then start the repatriation."

The foreign minister said he discussed Bangladesh's huge trade gap with China and the need to address that.

Chinese Ambassador said China wants to import mango, jute, leather goods, seafood, etc from Bangladesh.

"We requested that these products should have duty-free access."