A senior US State Department official has said Washington does not define its relationship with Bangladesh taking into account Dhaka\u2019s ties with Russia, China or any other country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUS-Bangladesh relationship isn\u2019t defined by China, by Russia and any other country,\u201d US Deputy Assistant Secretary Afreen Akhter told BSS diplomatic correspondent Tanzim Anwar in an exclusive interview this week in the capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She said that Washington had a broad range in multifaceted, multi-dimensional relationship with Bangladesh found lots of synergies as Dhaka recently released its Indo-Pacific Outlook (IPO) as many of its elements were common with US Indo Pacific Strategy (IPS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bangladesh last month released its IPO envisioning a free, open, peaceful, secure, and inclusive indo-pacific region that appeared Dhaka\u2019s expression its cohesion with the IPS which has been pursuing by the US in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The State department official\u2019s comments came months after US Ambassador in Dhaka Peter Haas said Washington does not force countries to choose sides over relations with other countries and particularly with Beijing as \u201cwe don\u2019t expect every country to have the same exact assessment of China as we do\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Haas, however, said the Russian actions in Ukraine currently appeared as the \u201cmost pressing strategic challenge\u201d for the US vision for an \u201copen, interconnected prosperous, secure and resilient Indo-pacific\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Talking to BSS Akhter pointed out with note of thanks Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina\u2019s recent joint statement with Japanese premier Fumio Kishida \u201ccondemning Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine as a violation of an International law and the UN charter\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI just want to say Prime Minister (Sheikh) Hasina\u2019s recent statement on Russia . . . we really welcome it very positively,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Indo Pacific Outlook (IPO)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US diplomat welcomed Dhaka\u2019s announcement of IPO and said the two documents \u2013 US\u2019s IPS and Bangladesh\u2019s IPO \u2013 share \u201ctremendous amount in common\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Apart from the US, the other members of QUAD – an informal strategic forum of the US, Australia, India and Japan \u2013 welcomed Bangladesh IPO with Indian external affair minister Dr S Jaishankar this week saying \u201cwe are glad\u201d about Bangladesh\u2019s Outlook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Security cooperation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US official said that the US was currently working \u201cvery closely\u201d with Bangladesh government on the remaining elements of General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), a foundational government-to-government agreement that permits greater collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe hope that (GSOMIA) will be signed in the coming months,\u201d she said without any elaboration further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n GSOMIA is a reciprocal legally-binding agreement between US and other governments to protecting classified military information regarding their security cooperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Akhter said that the US embassy defense attach\u00e9 in Dhaka was in very regular consultation with concerned Bangladesh authorities on security cooperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said the US planned to provide radar technology in countries throughout the Indo-pacific region to develop a common operating picture in the maritime domain under its Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative (IPMDA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n RAB Sanction<\/p>\n\n\n\n The US deputy assistant secretary said Washington was pleased to see \u201ca substantial decrease of extra judicial killings\u201d after its sanction on Bangladesh\u2019s elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe welcome that decrease (of in extra judicial killing) . . . (but) we need to see a long time sustained trend, positive changes of behavior (in RAB),\u201d she said adding that Washington focused on ensuring accountability, reform and transparency of RAB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI would say that with respect to lifting sanctions on the RAB, we need to see long term systemic change for sanctions to be considered to be removed,\u201d the state department official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The deputy assistant secretary also said Washington was concerned about the application Bangladesh\u2019s Digital Security and particularly \u201cwhere the Digital Security Act has been applied\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rohingya Issue<\/p>\n\n\n\n The state department official said that her country was working to find out a longer term durable solution to the crisis through repatriation of Rohinyas to Myanmar under the right condition, a task she termed as \u201cdifficult and challenging\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe believe very firmly that the conditions in Myanmar right now do not warrant a safe voluntary dignified return and so we would oppose any effort to forcibly repatriate individuals to Myanmar,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Akhter said the US might take more Rohingyas to the USA in future under its third country resettlement initiative which has started last December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe started a very small pilot programme to relocate some of the most vulnerable Rohingya refugees to the US . . . we are hoping for increase the number of third country relocation,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Akhter said the US was the largest donor by far to the Rohingya crisis and regretted that other members of the UN Security Council \u201chave not provided a Dime (as humanitarian support for the Rohingyas)\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Investment Plans<\/p>\n\n\n\n Akhter said that the US government was giving priority on Bangladesh\u2019s clean energy sector for investment. \u201cWe will be looking for opportunities to collaborate with Bangladesh on and looking forward (about energy sector cooperation).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She said the US private sector\u2019s relationships with Bangladesh was incredibly strong though Bangladesh\u2019s regulatory environment needed to be improved to attract US business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur trade attach\u00e9 here is working with the government of Bangladesh for making Bangladesh economy more transparent and more attractive for the US private sector investors\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Besides, Akhter said that the US embassy\u2019s labor attach\u00e9 here is also working very closely with Bangladesh government on improving labor conditions with respect of union registration and uniform application of the labour laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Akhter led the US delegation at the 6th Indian Ocean Conference (IOC) hosted by Dhaka from May 12 to 13.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A senior US State Department official has said Washington does not define its relationship with Bangladesh taking into account Dhaka\u2019s ties with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1632,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bd24live.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bd24live.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bd24live.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bd24live.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bd24live.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bd24live.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bd24live.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bd24live.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bd24live.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bd24live.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u201cBroadly, we see lot of synergies between our two documents, our strategy, and your (Bangladesh\u2019s) outlook. We both are focused on building economic prosperity in the region and through infrastructure, through our substantial development projects,\u201d the senior state department official said.<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\nAkhter said Bangladesh\u2019s IPO laid emphasis on \u201cmaritime security\u201d issue which was a key focus of the US and the other QUAD partners and \u201cso we will look for opportunities to continue to collaborate on that\u201d.\n\nShe said economic growth is a key component of Bangladesh IPO while the US is the top export destination for Bangladesh as well as the top investor in Bangladesh and \u201cso again we really look to build that out in the years to come\u201d.<\/code><\/pre>\n\n\n\n