Turkey hails Bangladesh for hosting Rohingya refugees

By Burak Dag and Seda Sevencan

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's top diplomat praised Bangladesh on Monday for its efforts to host Rohingya refugees.

In a joint news conference following a meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart AK Abdul Momen, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu thanked Dhaka for their hosting of millions of Rohingya refugees.

"We know that this is a huge burden and huge responsibility for Bangladesh. More than 4 million refugees are actually hosted by Bangladesh in total, so this is a huge responsibility on their shoulders. We appreciate their efforts," he told reporters in the Turkish capital Ankara.

Cavusoglu pointed out that Turkey, with its all organizations, stood by the Rohingya people and was helping Bangladesh.

He also celebrated the 100th anniversary of the birth of Bangladesh's founding leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Cavusoglu noted that the trade volume between Turkey and Bangladesh was around $1 billion, adding that this should be raised to $2 billion.

In their meeting earlier on Monday, the two officials discussed bilateral relations, trade and investment.