Russian FM cancels Dhaka visit

Diplomatic Correspondent :
The Foreign Ministry official said that Russian Foreign Minister (FM) Sergey Lavrov would not arrive in Dhaka to attend the 22nd Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) Council of Ministers summit.
He was scheduled to visit Bangladesh on Wednesday to attend the event on November 24, but the visit has been cancelled at the eleventh hour, Foreign Ministry sources said.
Dhaka had a high expectation that the Russian Foreign Minister would arrive here and a bilateral meeting would be held focusing on various bilateral issues including energy cooperation and seeking Russian support on the Rohingya issue.
Bangladesh invited all the member states of IROA including the Russian Federation to attend the minister-level summit. But the Foreign Minister on Saturday received a notification that Sergey Lavrov would not come. However, Russian Ambassador to Bangladesh Aleksandr Mantytsky would represent his country at the summit.
Bangladesh hopes that high-level bilateral meetings will be held in future to strengthen the bilateral ties between the two countries.
Bangladesh is the current chair of IORA, while Russia is a dialogue partner of it.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that it would arrange a press briefing on the upcoming IORA meeting on Monday.