Mahmood Ali, speaking at a joint press briefing in Moscow on Monday, also sought Russia’s support to resolve the crisis.

The foreign minister, speaking before his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, said Myanmar has also agreed to accept the participation of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, in the repatriation process following the signing of the deals with Bangladesh.

He sought Russian support to “work together” to resolve the Rohingya refugee crisis.

“Bangladesh is not a large country. It’s the most densely populated country in the world. So we cannot take additional people. We are hoping that all will be taken back,” he said at the briefing following bilateral talks where the issue was also discussed.

“We work together in international forum,” he said, adding that Bangladesh noted the support of Russia in the process of signing deals with Myanmar.

On being asked, he said “it’s not easy” to set a timeline by which the return can take place.

He said they can go back only when the environment is “conducive”, citing that there are no homes for them to live there.

Mahmood Ali also urged Russia to help build infrastructure in the Rakhine State with India, China, Japan and Indonesia who are already working in the Rakhine State to build required infrastructure such as primary schools.

“Let us see now. We are trying to start the process as soon as possible. Now they have accepted the role of UNHCR and they are trying to sign a MoU with UNHCR and UN,” he said on the timeline of return, adding that Bangladesh hopes this would happen “very soon”.

Ali briefed him on the latest developments and the measures taken by Bangladesh for the rehabilitation of the Myanmar nationals and sought active cooperation of the Russian Federation and all others for resolving the issue.

He also assured Dhaka of possible Russian assistance to this end, the foreign ministry said.

Russia initially termed the Rohingya crisis an “internal issue” and said attempts at intervening in Myanmar’s “internal affairs” may have only one net effect - still deeper inter-religious discord.

In November, the governments of Myanmar and Bangladesh signed an agreement on repatriating Rohingya refugees from the camps to their home country.

Moscow hailed these agreements and hoped constructive cooperation between the two countries would continue.

At a meeting of the UN Security Council on the situation in Rakhine State in February, the Russian delegation, however, expressed concern over attempts to delay the solution of the problem with refugee repatriation under the pretext of the absence of conditions for their return in Myanmar.

Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque, speaking at a seminar in Dhaka on Monday, said the crisis of Rohingya people is not an issue between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

“It’s an issue between Myanmar and its own nationals. We happened to be caught in between,” he said.

Referring to the decades-old crisis in which Rohingyas come and go back to Rakhine State and again return facing violence, he said it has become a cycle. “We want to cut that cycle”.

“Back in 1971, the Soviet Union became one of the first countries to recognise the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. Since then, our ties have always hinged on the principles of mutual respect and equality,” he said.

“We intensively expand our bilateral relations on a par with ties between governments, ministries and agencies,” he said, citing examples such as the 2017 exchange visits of parliamentary delegations, and that of Chief Justice of the Russian Supreme Court Vyacheslav Lebedev to Dhaka.

In 2017, bilateral trade volume soared over 14 percent to reach $1.6 billion.

“Gazprom operates successfully in your country. We are jointly building the first nuclear power station in Bangladesh. The actively expanding military-technical cooperation has good prospects,” he said.