ISLAMABAD: The governments of Pakistan and Bangladesh this week expressed satisfaction at the upward trajectory of ties between the two nations, resolving to enhance bilateral cooperation in trade and other sectors during a meeting between their senior officials, state-run media reported. 

After decades of strained ties between the two nations, Islamabad and Dhaka have warmed up to each other after the fall of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s government last year. 

The meeting between Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Bangladesh’s Adviser for Foreign Affairs Md. Touhid Hossain took place in Jeddah during the sidelines of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers summit. 

“The meeting took place in a cordial environment, reflecting the fraternal sentiments from both sides,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported on Saturday. 

“Both the dignitaries expressed satisfaction over the upward trajectory of bilateral relations,” it added. “They agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in all areas of mutual interest.”

Dar highlighted the two countries’ historical, religious, and cultural linkages, expressing Pakistan’s desire to enhance bilateral cooperation in areas of trade and people-to-people contacts, Radio Pakistan said. 

Established together as one independent nation in 1947, Bangladesh won liberation from then-West Pakistan in 1971. Relations between the two countries continued to deteriorate Hasina’s administration, which prosecuted several members of the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party for war crimes relating to the 1971 conflict.

However, relations between Pakistan and Bangladesh have improved since Hasina was ousted in a bloody student-led protest in August 2024. Islamabad’s ties with Dhaka have also improved as Bangladesh’s relations with India, where Hasina has sought refuge, have deteriorated.

Last month, Bangladesh confirmed it was resuming direct trade with Pakistan after 50 years. The country’s food ministry said it would receive 50,000 tons of rice from Pakistan in March.