Bangladesh, EU to sign PCA in Brussels Monday

Bangladesh and the European Union (EU) are set to sign the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) on Monday in Brussels, Belgium as both sides eye to take the relationship to new heights further institutionalising bilateral cooperation. 

Once signed, the PCA will serve as the legal and political foundation for the strategic and long-term Bangladesh-EU relationship, said officials at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Sunday.

They said it will help strengthen relations between Bangladesh and the EU in many policy areas, from human rights and governance to trade, investment, environmental sustainability and climate change as well as food security, energy, transport and science, technology and innovation.

Moreover, the agreement will also be a significant milestone as Bangladesh moves towards becoming the first South Asian country to sign a PCA with the European Union.

The EU looks forward to the new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with Bangladesh which will be ‘initialed’ during the visit of the Foreign Minister to Brussels on April 20, enhancing cooperation across the board.

After attending the three-day Antalya Diplomacy Forum, the Foreign Minister and Prime Minister’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Humaiun Kobir left Turkey for Brussels, Belgium on Sunday to attend the signing ceremony.

Secretary (Bilateral) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dr. Md. Nazrul Islam will join.

On his way back home, the Foreign Minister is expected to make a stopover in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and will return to Bangladesh on April 24, said a senior official.

The fifth round of negotiations between Bangladesh and the European Union on the framework agreement was held in January this year.

Through the negotiations, both sides finalised the text of the agreement.

The negotiations on the proposed PCA started with the explanatory meeting between Bangladesh and the EU in Dhaka in November 2024.

Since then, the two sides engaged in five rounds of discussions and several technical meetings in Dhaka and Brussels, both physically and virtually, reports UNB.

The fifth round on focused particularly on some key thematic areas of mutual interests between Bangladesh and European Union including legal and  judicial cooperation, intellectual property rights, energy cooperation, fisheries, aquaculture & ocean governance, trade and investment, human rights, customs cooperation, etc.