Malaysian higher education minister Zambry Andel Kadir called on chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus at St Regis Hotel in the Egyptian capital Cairo on Wednesday.
They discussed issues of mutual interest, including the recruitment of Bangladeshis in Malaysia, expansion of higher education ties, the Rohingya crisis, and the possibilities of Bangladesh joining the聽Association of Southeast Asian Nations, ASEAN in short, a press release from the chief adviser鈥檚 press wing said.
The Malaysian minister, who is also a champion of microcredit, said that Kuala Lumpur would continue to support Bangladesh in issues, including the Rohingya humanitarian crisis and Bangladesh鈥檚 inclusion as a sectoral dialogue partner at the ASEAN.
鈥榃e are looking forward to closer ties with Bangladesh,鈥� Zambry told Professor Yunus, said the release.
The chief adviser said that he had proposed an international conference on the Rohingya crisis, and he expected Malaysia to extend support to the move.
He also said that more than 80,000 new Rohingyas had entered Bangladesh in recent months after the latest bout of violence gripped Myanmar鈥檚 Rakhine state, which had been home to the Rohingya people for centuries.
Yunus said that he also favoured creating a UN-supervised safe zone for the displaced people in Rakhine state in an effort to assist the violence-plagued region.
During the talks, Professor Yunus said that his government planned to hold elections by the first half of 2026.