Pakistan Navy Chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf being received with a Guard of Honour at the Bangladesh Naval Headquarters in Banani. Photo: Inter Services Public Relations via ANI
Pakistan’s Navy Chief Admiral Naveed Ashraf on Sunday (November 9, 2025) met Bangladesh’s Army Chief General Waker-Uz-Zaman and held talks with his counterpart Admiral M. Nazmul Hassan, during his visit to bolster bilateral defence ties, according to an official statement.
“They (Ashraf and Zaman) discussed ways to strengthen bilateral defence cooperation and military capabilities. They also discussed prospects of expanded military cooperation through bilateral training, seminars, and visits,” Defence Ministry’s Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) directorate or media wing said in a statement.
The four-day visit came a day after a Pakistani naval ship, PNS SAIF, anchored off Bangladesh’s main port in southeastern Chattogram for a four-day goodwill visit.
Pakistan Navy, said in a statement, the development is a coordinated engagement that underscored Islamabad’s “commitment to strengthen longstanding ties and improve maritime collaboration with Bangladesh”.
Earlier in the day, Hassan received his Pakistani counterpart at the airport, where a Bangladeshi naval contingent offered him an honour guard. Ashraf paid homage to the 1971 Liberation War martyrs of the armed forces, placing wreaths at their memorial, Shikha Anirban, in Dhaka Cantonment.
The ISPR said the two navy chiefs’ meeting featured matters related to training and professional collaboration. The meeting was also attended by visiting Pakistani navy delegation members, its high commissioner in Dhaka and senior Bangladeshi navy officers.
Mr. Ashraf’s Bangladesh visit came two weeks after Pakistan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) chairman General Sahir Shamshad Mirza visited Bangladesh and met interim Government Chief Muhammad Yunus and three armed forces chiefs.
Bangladesh-Pakistan ties witnessed a rapid development after the ouster of deposed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League regime on August 5, 2024, in a student-led street protest called the July Uprising, which installed Mr. Yunus as the head of the interim administration.
According to ISPR, the Pakistan Navy Chief is scheduled to meet Bangladesh’s Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal Hasan Mahmood Khan and the principal staff officer of the Armed Forces Division, the commandant of the National Defence College, and naval administrative authorities in the southwestern port city of Chattogram.
Published – November 10, 2025 02:33 am IST
