Dhaka has invited Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to pay a bilateral visit to Bangladesh in September this year, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen said on Monday.
"We have invited him [Trudeau]... he will visit India in September to join the G20 summit. If he can manage to come here that time, it will be a plus plus," he told the media after holding a meeting with Canadian International Development Minister Harjit S Sajjan.
The foreign minister was speaking at a joint press briefing along with Sajjan at the state guest house Padma in Dhaka this afternoon.
"The Canadian prime minister visited Bangladesh when he was a kid... now he has become a household name in Bangladesh," Momen said referring to Trudeau's huge popularity among the country's mass people.
Trudeau visited Bangladesh as a child in 1983 with his father Pierre Trudeau, who was then the prime minister of Canada.
Regarding the invitation, Sajjan said he would personally convey Dhaka's invitation to his prime minister.
"One thing I do know that he [Trudeau] does remember and very fond of his time when he travelled with his father [in Bangladesh] and he always shares his stories. So, if the opportunity does come, I know that how much he would really welcome to come here," said the Canadian minister.
In March 2021, Trudeau recalled his first visit to Bangladesh as a child in a video message, marking the birth centenary of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the 50th anniversary of the country's independence.
"That time my father and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had already forged a strong relationship — one that was rooted in Canada's early support for an independent Bangladesh," the Canadian prime minister said in the video message.
