Vietnam, a Buddhist majority member of ASEAN, has expressed concern over the Rohingya crisis and assured of assistance to resolve the protracted problem. During a meeting with Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Tuesday, according to a press release forwarded by the Bangladesh embassy in Vietnam yesterday, Ambassador in Hanoi Samina Naz requested the leader of Vietnam to support Bangladesh in its efforts to see the forcibly displaced Rohingyas, over six lakh in number, be repatriated to their homeland Myanmar. She requested the prime minister to join the UN efforts and support Bangladesh to bring this crisis to a resolve. In reply, the prime minister said that ‘Vietnam is very much concerned and understands the difficulties being faced by Bangladesh’. He assured that in next the ASEAN summit, he would talk to the Myanmar top leaders in an attempt to bring a resolution to this crisis situation. At the meeting, the ambassador briefed the Vietnamese prime minister on the present status of bilateral relations that the two countries enjoy.
She emphasised on strengthening bilateral trade to reach to US dollar 1 billion by tapping up newer potentials that the two countries may offer to each other – Bangladesh to offer pharmaceutical and ceramic export beside other trading items, while Vietnam can help in the fields of agriculture, aquaculture, infrastructure materials supply etc.  Newer cooperation in tele-communications, IT sectors, and more strengthening relations in the fields of culture, sports, education etc. can also be nurtured.