Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momin on May 24 clarified that the country has not changed its policy towards Israel, which became the talk of the town after Bangladesh issued a new passport.
In the newly issued passport, the line “This passport is valid for all countries except Israel” was changed to “This is passport is valid for all countries.”
The change gave an impression that Bangladesh had dropped the travel ban on its citizens to Israel and a tweet by a senior Israeli foreign ministry official only added to the confusion.
“Great news! Bangladesh has removed the travel ban to Israel. This is a welcome step and I call on the Bangladeshi government to move forward and establish diplomatic ties with Israel so both our peoples could benefit and prosper,” tweeted Gilad Cohen, the deputy director-general for Asia and the Pacific at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
However, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Momen on My 24 clarified that the change in the passport was done to match international standards.
Dropping two words from the passport did not mean a change in its foreign policy, he added.
It may be mentioned here that Bangladesh doesn’t recognise Israel and has no diplomatic relations with it.
The director-general of the Department of Immigration and Passport Major General Md Ayub Chowdhury said that the passport is just a national identity card for citizens and doesn’t represent the country’s foreign policy.