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EU troika due in city today
1/23/2006
A European Union (EU) troika will arrive in the capital today (Monday) on a three-day visit to Bangladesh.
The EU troika will hold talks with the government and opposition leaders, the representatives of civil society and the international diplomatic community on a broad range of issues, including next general elections, fundamentalist extremism, governance, corruption and human rights.
This will be the first ever visit to Bangladesh by an EU troika, report agencies.
The team will be led by Nikolaus Scherk, director for Asia Pacific at the Austrian Foreign Ministry, representing the presidency of the EU.
He will be accompanied by James Moran, acting director for Asia, representing the European Commission, Pekka Metso, director for Asia and Oceania, representing the incoming Finnish presidency of the EU, and Michael Swann representing the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy.
The EU has long-standing relations with Bangladesh, including through the 2001 Cooperation Agreement on Partnership and Development, a release said in the city Sunday.
The European Union is one of Bangladesh's closest international partners and remains committed to further developing its constructive relationship with the country.
The troika carries a mandate to speak on behalf of all 25 member states of the EU such as Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.
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