Téacsanna AE

The "Cooperation Agreement between the European Community and the People's Republic of Bangladesh on partnership and development" was signed in Brussels on 22 May 2000 and entered into force on 1 March 2001.

The Agreement replaces a 1976 cooperation agreement, which was devoted exclusively to trade promotion and economic cooperation. The new Cooperation Agreement assumes a broader approach: "Believing that relations between them have developed beyond the scope of the Agreement concluded in 1976".

Human rights and democratic principles are referenced from the outset, in Article 1.
The Agreement aims to step up cooperation in a number of areas:

• development (paying particular attention to drug control and AIDS);
  
• trade and commercial cooperation;
  
• the environment (recognising that there is a close link between social deprivation and environmental degradation);
  
• economic cooperation;
  
• regional cooperation;
  
• science and technology;
  
• drug precursor chemicals and money laundering;
  
• human resources;
  
• information, culture and communication.

The future developments clause at Article 14 allows the Agreement to be expanded to specific sectors or activities. Either party is at liberty to make suggestions to this end.