Politics

Bangladesh and Iraq sign two MoUs on visa exemption and political talks

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir and Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Hussein signed the deals in Baghdad on the sidelines of the OIC foreign ministers' meeting.

ScrollBeat DeskPublished: 18 Oct 2026, 09:35

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir speaking in Dhaka in September 2026, in a public-domain file photo. He signed two MoUs with Iraq in Baghdad on 17 October 2026. Press Information Department, Bangladesh (public domain)

Bangladesh and Iraq signed two memoranda of understanding in Baghdad on 17 October, one granting visa exemptions to holders of diplomatic and official passports and the other setting up a mechanism for regular political consultations.

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Humaiun Kobir and Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Hussein signed the instruments on the sidelines of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Bangladesh's Foreign Ministry said.

Under the first MoU, holders of diplomatic and official passports from either country will be exempted from visa requirements, removing a routine hurdle for officials travelling between Dhaka and Baghdad. The second creates a structured channel for periodic political talks between the two governments.

At the ceremony the two ministers exchanged greetings and reaffirmed their commitment to strengthening friendly and cooperative relations. They said they were confident the agreements would give fresh momentum to bilateral engagement and open new areas of cooperation.

Bangladesh's ambassador to Iraq, Major General Md Maksudul Haque, was present at the signing.

The deals were signed during the OIC's 52nd Council of Foreign Ministers, which is being held in Baghdad under the theme of dialogue and solidarity. Host Iraq has taken over the council's chair from Turkiye for a one-year term.

Sources & further reading

Spotted an error? Read our corrections policy

Keep reading

NEXT STORY World

Trump mocks the name 'Mohammad' while joking about Iran at a Georgia rally

The US president told a campaign crowd to 'just say Mohammad' if unsure of a Middle Eastern name, drawing criticism from Muslim advocacy groups.

ScrollBeat Desk18 Oct 2026, 10:32Open this article

US President Donald Trump. Official portrait by Daniel Torok, released into the public domain. Daniel Torok, The White House

US President Donald Trump made a joke about the popularity of the name Mohammad in the Muslim world as he mocked Iran's presidency during a campaign rally in Dalton, Georgia, on 16 October, ahead of the 3 November midterm elections.

"You know, if you're in doubt about somebody's name from the Middle East, just say 'Mohammad,'" Trump told the crowd in a hangar at Dalton Municipal Airport. "You have about a 65% chance. 'Hello, Mohammad.' I've done it for years now. I've never been wrong."

Mohammad is one of the most common male names among Muslims, who often name their sons after the Prophet Mohammad, the founder of Islam.

After telling the crowd that "Iran is the only country where nobody wants to be president", Trump pretended to ask several people named Mohammad whether they wanted the job. Masoud Pezeshkian has been Iran's president since 2024. The Georgia crowd gave the joke a muted response.

Rights advocates and Muslim advocacy groups criticised the remarks. The Council on American-Islamic Relations, whose annual report this year attributed rising Islamophobia in the United States in part to Trump's crackdown on immigration and pro-Palestinian protests, has repeatedly faulted his rhetoric. He has intensified such comments during the midterm campaign season, particularly against Muslim Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, who came to the US as a Somali refugee.

Trump also repeated his vow that Iran would never get a nuclear weapon, seven months after the United States and Israel launched a war on Tehran aimed in part at crippling its nuclear programme.

NEXT STORY Business

Bangladesh cuts subsidised rice and flour targets as safety-net spending shifts

The Open Market Sale programme will target 240,000 tonnes of rice and 350,000 tonnes of flour this year, down from last year's sales, while its subsidy falls by Tk 685 crore.

ScrollBeat Desk18 Oct 2026, 10:32Open this article

Kalijira, a Bangladeshi rice variety. The government sells subsidised rice through Open Market Sale outlets. Photo: Masum-al-Hasan Rocky, Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). Masum-al-Hasan Rocky, Wikimedia Commons

Bangladesh has lowered its targets for selling subsidised rice and flour to low-income households through the Open Market Sale (OMS) programme, after the government cut the scheme's subsidy for the current fiscal year.

Food Ministry data presented at the first meeting of the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry on 15 October set an OMS target of 240,000 tonnes of rice and 350,000 tonnes of flour for FY27, The Business Standard reported. In FY26 the government sold 304,000 tonnes of rice and 449,000 tonnes of flour.

The subsidy allocation for OMS was cut by Tk 685 crore to Tk 3,411 crore, down from Tk 4,096 crore a year earlier. A Food Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the allocation was adjusted as part of wider changes to social safety-net spending and that the decision was not final; more funds could be provided if needed.

Under the programme, rice sells at Tk 30 a kilogram, loose flour at Tk 24 a kilogram and a two-kilogram packet of flour at Tk 55, through 1,125 outlets run by dealers nationwide. The government has also stopped selling rice through the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh this year, after offering it at subsidised prices last year.

The move follows an existing slide in subsidised distribution. Food ministry data show the government distributed 7.55 lakh tonnes of grain in July-September of FY27, down 7 percent year on year, with OMS sales falling 22 percent to 2.05 lakh tonnes, The Daily Star reported.

Economists warned that the timing is difficult for poor households. "In view of inflation, food distribution should have been increased. We see the opposite," said Nazneen Ahmed, executive director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue. Selim Raihan of the South Asian Network on Economic Modeling said cutting food distribution at such a time risks worsening food insecurity and indebtedness.

Trading Corporation of Bangladesh data around mid-October put medium-quality rice at Tk 56-65 a kilogram in Dhaka, while market visits found coarse and medium varieties had risen by Tk 1-2 a kilogram over the previous week.

Pressure on households remains high. September's 12-month average inflation was 8.65 percent, and the World Bank says about 6.2 crore people are one economic shock away from poverty, with national poverty projected to rise to 22.5 percent in 2026. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has projected that about 1.81 crore people would face acute food insecurity between September and December.