Bangladesh embassy celebrates Victory Day in Beijing

The Bangladesh embassy in Beijing celebrated the country's 49th Victory Day on Wednesday in grand fashion.

A flag-raising ceremony started the day's celebration, followed by a one-minute silence to pay tribute to the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and martyred fighters of the Liberation War of 1971.

A webinar discussing the significance of day was held at the embassy, where messages from the Bangladeshi president, prime minister and foreign minister were read.

In his speech, Bangladeshi Ambassador to China Mahbub Uz Zaman highlighted the significance of the historic day while highlighting the role of the government in upholding the spirit of the liberation war by advancing Bangladesh into a progressive middle-income country by 2021.

The envoy lauded the visionary leadership of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for transforming the Bangladesh economy toward attaining the Sustainable Development Goals and turning Bangladesh into a developed country by the year 2041.

Chinese Ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming joined the event from Dhaka via Zoom link as a special guest.

He hailed China-Bangladesh relations as "impressive" and expressed confidence they will be strengthened in the coming days.

China would be ready to expand cooperation as "one of the largest development partners of Bangladesh", he said, lauding Bangladesh's economic progress during the pandemic and adding Bangladesh has adopted effective measures for containing COVID-19.

Professor Xu Baofeng of Beijing Language and Culture University, who joined the webinar in Beijing, congratulated Bangladesh and its people on the Victory Day.

The professor stressed the need to foster people-to-people exchanges between China and Bangladesh and engage more in literary collaboration, such as translation of classic literature.

Cultural events featuring music and dance performances were also held at the embassy in celebration.