Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen on Tuesday said that Bangladesh’s expectation from the new Joe Biden administration in the US was “indeed reasonably higher”.
“…and we believe, the US will again lead the world in achieving core values and principles,” he said speaking at a webinar organised by Bangladesh Enterprise Institute (BEI) entitled “Bangladesh-US Relations: Opportunities and Challenges”.
Prime Minister’s adviser Salman F Rahman, Prof Reman Sohan and Ranok Jahan, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen, US Ambassador Earl Miller, Bangladesh Ambassador in the US Shohidul Haque and BEI President Ambassador Farooq Sobhan also spoke at the event.
The foreign minister said the new US Administration under the leadership of President Joe Biden, appears “to be more supportive to the causes of the developing world, including areas like climate change, trade facilitation, COVID-19 response and migrants.”
“I am quite hopeful that the steadily growing Bangladesh-US relations is expected to achieve newer height in coming days during the Biden Administration,” he said.
“There are so many avenues to be opened, and Bangladesh is keen to reap the full potential. We look forward to continuing our critical work together with the new government to further strengthen our enduring relationship, address mutual challenges, and build on the progress and prosperity we have made on so many fronts.”
“With visionary policies undertaken by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Bangladesh is fully confident of further strengthening its ties with all development partners to facilitate economic and political cooperation and people-to-people ties, the US being one of the biggest among them,” he said.
“I am confident that regular bilateral visits and political level engagements between the two countries at the highest level will elevate Bangladesh-US partnership to a higher plane; and will also generate great dynamism and momentum in our growing relationship.
“We really want to lift our relations with the US to a newer height in coming days.”
He gave a list of expectations from the US administration from resolving the Rohingya crisis to returning Rashed Chowdhury, a convicted fugitive killer of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who is living in the US.
“We requested the US government to speed up the return of Rashed Chowdhury to Bangladesh to face justice. In light of our shared spirit of establishing justice and rule of law, I believe that the new US Administration should look into this matter seriously. In fact, this could be a game changer in the Bangladesh-US Partnership. We also have an extradition treaty pending with the US side for a long time,” he said.
The foreign minister also stressed on the necessity to strengthen further bilateral and multilateral cooperation and collective actions to tackle the evolving dimensions of health as well as economic crisis during this COVID-19 pandemic as well as during the post-pandemic situation.
“The need for this partnership is even more today when the whole world is facing the extraordinary challenges of the global pandemic,” he said.
“We believe that trade and Investment can be one of the strongest bonds of partnership between Bangladesh and the United States of America.”
The US is Bangladesh’s single largest export destination country and the largest investor.
The foreign minister also said that Bangladesh remains committed to promoting connectivity in the region.
“The concept of Free and Open Indo-Pacific would help Bangladesh promote Blue Economy, its seaborne external freight, its connectivity and improvement of investment climate and strengthen measures against terrorism and other organized crimes in the maritime space.
“We request for the US investment in infrastructural development of Bangladesh to enhance the effectiveness of the Indo-Pacific strategies in the South Asian region,” he said.
“In fact, we have joined the Belt and Road Initiative of China from the same aspiration of receiving investment in our infrastructure development, aimed at socio-economic development of our people. We also like to see the Indo-Pacific Strategy as a conduit for inclusive growth in the region.”
South Asia is one of the least integrated regions of the world with great potentials that could be explored from various dimensions.
“Bangladesh has been a leader in regional cooperation and connectivity initiatives, and we welcome US involvement in the existing and the new initiatives. Bangladesh would continue to pursue economic diplomacy pro-actively with neighboring, regional and global players, including and particularly with the United States of America,” the foreign minister said.
“This is needless to reiterate that Bangladesh attaches high importance on having strong bilateral relations with the United States, based on the strong foundation of our shared values of democratic principles, peace, prosperity and personal freedom.”
