Bangladesh has sought cooperation from China to repatriate Rohingya refugees to Myanmar during a visit by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who promised better trade ties, investment and support for infrastructure development in the South Asian nation.

Key points:

• A military-backed campaign drove thousands of Rohingya, who are mainly Muslim, across the Myanmar border into Bangladesh
• Both China and Myanmar have been accused of genocide against Muslims, with China defending Myanmar on the global stage
• China and Bangladesh, with the former involved in all major infrastructure projects in the latter

The mainly Muslim Rohingya group faces widespread discrimination in Myanmar, where they are despised as interlopers despite having lived in the country for generations.

A military-backed campaign that the United Nations labelled a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing" saw hundreds of thousands of Rohingya driven across the border into Bangladesh in 2017, where they have since lived in sprawling refugee camps.

China had used its influence in Myanmar to broker a November 2017 agreement to repatriate about 700,000 Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled persecution in Myanmar in August that year.

Despite attempts to send them back, the refugees refused, fearing danger in Myanmar, which was exacerbated by the military takeover last year.

Mr Yi arrived in Dhaka on Saturday evening and met with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen .

They discussed bilateral and global issues before his departure on Sunday morning, said Shahriar Alam, Bangladesh's junior minister for foreign affairs.

The junior minister said China pledged to work continuously to resolve the Rohingya crisis and quoted Yi as saying that the internal challenges in Myanmar were not only troubling Bangladesh but also other countries.

"Our foreign minister strongly reiterated that Chinese cooperation is needed. China has progressed on resolving the Rohingya issue and we need the situation to come to an end," Mr Alam said.