Australian Foreign Minister Senator Marise Payne today congratulated Dr A K Abdul Momen, the newly appointed foreign minister of Bangladesh on his appointment.

Australian High Commissioner Julia Niblett handed over the Letter of Congratulations to Abdul Momen while paying a courtesy call at the Foreign Minister’s office, according to a press release issued in this regard by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Australian High Commissioner described Bangladesh-Australia relationship as warm, longstanding and constructive underpinned by education, energy cooperation and expanding trade and investment ties during the meeting with the foreign minister. Julia said Australia highly values Bangladesh’s cooperation in addressing shared regional challenges like irregular migration and Rohingya crisis, reads the press release.

The foreign minister also expressed deep appreciation for the valuable support of Australia towards Bangladesh since its independence. While appreciating Australia's humanitarian assistance for the Rohingyas, Foreign Minister sought its active role in solving the Rohingya crisis.

The Australian high commissioner also said, her country has taken into account the findings of UN Fact-finding Mission on assessing accountability of crimes committed against the Rohingyas and underlined the importance of cessation of ongoing violence in Myanmar to create a conducive condition of return of the displaced people.

Expressing gratitude to High Commissioner for providing scholarship for students of Bangladesh to study in Australia, the foreign minister requested to create a joint research mechanism for collaborative research to harness creativity and knowledge. He also requested to review the travel advisory of Australia on Bangladesh to facilitate more business interaction between the two countries, the PR reads.