Italy is one of the largest trading partners of Bangladesh and more than 200,000 Bangladeshis live in this European country, second largest after the UK.The two sides, however, never hosted any bilateral meeting in more than 40 years of diplomatic ties.
 
 

The foreign ministry says Vedova will arrive on Wednesday evening to have a bilateral meeting with his counterpart Md Shahriar Alam on Thursday.He will leave on Friday after meeting the Prime Minister, the Speaker, and ministers for expatriate welfare and commerce, among others.“We don’t have any thorny issue. Relation is smooth, growing and expanding. But this is the first time we are holding a bilateral meeting. You can say it’s a new beginning of the relations,” a senior official of the foreign ministry told bdnews24.com.The visit is being seen as Dhaka’s efforts to strengthen its relations with the already friendly countries.Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is going to New Zealand on Mar 11 for the first time in the Bangladesh’s diplomatic history for a bilateral meeting with that country.In another initiative, Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali will visit Portugal this month for a bilateral meeting for the first time.“Most of the time ministers for development affairs of the EU countries come to visit Bangladesh because they give aid. But now we are focused on holding more bilateral talks. And we are getting positive response,” a senior official at the foreign ministry, who chose anonymity, told bdnews24.com.The official said a whole range of bilateral issues would be discussed during the meeting.Bangladesh registered more than $1.3 billion exports to Italy during the last fiscal, 30 percent more than the previous year.Dhaka and Rome share similar views on many international issues including counter terrorism and climate change.Prime Minister joined the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) held in Italy last year in Oct.Her counterpart invited her to visit Italy again during the upcoming ‘Expo Milano’ from May 1 to Oct 31 which would the largest show in the world.“Our PM also invited her Italian counterpart,” the official said.“We can say the relation is on a higher trajectory”.  