China-Bangladesh direct airline to be discussed during Premier's S.Asia tour

Establishing a direct airline between Dhaka and Kunming will be conferred during Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's imminent visit to Bangladesh, said Bangladeshi ambassador to China Ashfaqur Rahman in Beijing Sunday.

"Hopefully during the visit there will be progress for the formation of a direct air link between Dhaka and Kunming, so we can go straight to the heart of China," he said.

The airline from Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, to Kunming, capital city of southwest China's Yunnan province, will be the first direct air link between the two countries. Rahman said the Bangladeshi government hopes to improve trade cooperation through increase transportation links with western China.

Besides Dhaka-Kunming air route, a couple of agreements and memorandums of understanding in various fields are expected to be inked during the visit. Rahman said China is going to award the Approved Destination Status (ADS) to Bangladesh.

Premier Wen is scheduled to visit four nations in south Asia early this April; he is due to visit Bangladesh from 7 to 8.

"Premier Wen is our welcomed guest, and we expect his visit would help deepen" and "widen" the bilateral relationship between Bangladesh and China," the ambassador acknowledged.

Calling the bilateral relations "time-tested," Rahman clarified the reasons that Sino-Bangladeshi relationship has been further increased during the past decades. First, Bangladesh adheres to one-China policy and supports China in the international arena; second, the bilateral relationship between the two nations is based on the principle of non-interference in each other's internal affairs and; third, the two countries share similarity in various fields, such as, both are developing nations with large populations.

Rahman said the Bangladeshi government has taken China as the core in its "look east" foreign strategy, which focuses on cooperation with the countries east to Bangladesh including China,Japan, Republic of Korea and the ASEAN. And he hoped that Premier Wen's visit would further promote cooperation between the two countries in all fields, especially trade and tourism.

The ambassador commended China's good-neighborly policy, saying that it is "most favorable" and "welcomed," as it brings to its Asian neighbors peace, development and prosperity.

"When the high tide (occurs) in the sea, all the ships at the harbor will rise with the surging tide and, when China is rising and takes a good-neighborly policy, all the neighbors will be rising too," the ambassador said.