DHAKA, Feb 27, 2023 (BSS) - Dhaka has invited Canadian Prime Minister Justin 
Trudeau to pay a bilateral visit in Bangladesh in September this year, 
foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said here today. 

"We have invited him (Trudeau) ... he will visit India in September to join 
the G20 summit, if he manage to come here that time it will be a plus plus," 
he told media after holding a meeting with Canadian International Development 
Minister Harjit S. Sajjan. 

The foreign minister was speaking at a joint press briefing along with Sajjan 
at state guest house Padma in the capital this afternoon. 

"Canadian PM visited Bangladesh when he was a kid ... now he became a 
household name in Bangladesh," Momen said referring Trudeau's huge popularity 
among the country's mass people. 

Trudeau visited to Bangladesh as a child in 1983 with his father Pierre 
Trudeau, who was the then Prime Minister of Canada.
 
Regarding the invitation, Harjit S. Sajjan said he would personally convey 
the Dhaka's invitation to his Prime Minister. 

"One thing I do know that he (Trudeau) does remember and very fond of his 
time when he travelled with his father (in Bangladesh) and he always shares 
his stories. So, if the opportunity does come, I know that how much he would 
really welcome to come here," said the Canadian minister. 

In March, 2021, Trudeau recalled his first visit to Bangladesh as a child in 
a video message marking the birth centenary of Father of the Nation 
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the 50th anniversary of the country's 
Independence.

"That time my father and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had already forged a strong 
relationship -- one that was rooted in Canada's early support for an 
independent Bangladesh," the Canadian premier said in the video message.