Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN) - The Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Iyad Ameen Madani is arriving in the capital Dhaka on Saturday on a four-day official visit to Bangladesh.
The secretary general will lead a five-member delegation on his first visit to Bangladesh after taking office as the new secretary general recently.
During the visit, the secretary general will hold meetings with Foreign Minister A. H. Mahmood Ali and the Foreign Secretary M. Shahidul Haque at the Foreign Office on Sunday.
He is also expected to call on President Abdul Hamid, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Finance Minister Abul Maal Abdul Muhith, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, apart from visiting some institutions.
The visit is aimed at deepening and widening the cooperation existing between Bangladesh and OIC, a foreign ministry statement said in Dhaka on Friday.
Madani, a former Minister of Saudi Arabia, assumed office as the tenth Secretary General of OIC on 01 January 2014 after his election in the 12th OIC Summit held in Cairo, Egypt in February 2013.
Bangladesh is among the first few countries that the Secretary General decided to visit after taking over the responsibilities of the General Secretariat of OIC, the statement added.
The OIC is the second largest international organization (after the UN family) that groups together 57 Muslim-majority countries spread over four Continents.
It was established through a decision of the Summit in Rabat, Kingdom of Morocco on 25 September 1969 in response to an act of criminal arson of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem of Palestine.
The organization’s main objective is to protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony among various peoples of the world.
BBN/SSR/AD-07Mar14-7:55 pm (BST)