Foreign Minister Dr A K Abdul Momen has gone to Washington in the wake of the upcoming elections and the human rights situation; there is going to be a meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken in Washington on April 10.
The upcoming Momen-Blinken meeting is at the center of interest in the diplomatic arena due to recent developments. However, Dr. Momen will also meet with other important State Department officials during the visit, diplomatic sources said.
In almost all the recent statements, reports and meetings about Bangladesh, the representatives of different levels of the United States government have been bringing up the subject of the upcoming parliamentary elections. Even in the greetings given on the occasion of Bangladesh's Independence Day, US Secretary of State Blinken reminded about fair and impartial elections.
Advisors and top officials of the US State Department have also come on multiple visits and talked about this. For this reason, the diplomats of Dhaka think that the topic of the upcoming elections will come up in the Momen-Blinken meeting in Washington.
On the other hand, Bangladesh will give priority to lifting the ban on RAB, duty and quota-free access to Bangladeshi products, restoration of GSP benefits, defense, climate, Rohingya and many other issues.
Dr. Momen said, “The US foreign minister has invited me. I must say we are very lucky. Because the American Secretary of State does not give invitations very often, we received his invitation three times in a row. I gladly accepted the invitation.”
“America has raised an issue with us often and that is they want a fair and transparent election in Bangladesh. Of course the Bangladesh government also wants a transparent, beautiful and acceptable election. In fact, America's core values and our core values are similar. We came to power through elections.”
“We have made transparent ballot boxes. It used to be fake. We have formed an independent election commission so that it does not happen now. They will do the election,” he said.
“The responsibility of the Election Commission is to conduct transparent and acceptable elections. The government must help the commission. And it will not happen only if the government helps. People, all political parties, media should all help. A fair and transparent election is not possible without the help of all political parties.”
“We will elect according to our constitution. If one has any other kind of thought, it is a wrong thought. We believe in the Constitution and the rule of law. The government will try to have a fair election with everyone's participation. All parties have already been invited to the elections. Hopefully, they will respond to the call of the government,” he added.
The minister said, “America is giving considerable importance to our development. And our relationship has improved. We had less traffic for two years due to covid. Now it is quite normal.”
“America is our greatest friend. They are our biggest investors. One of our export destinations is USA. America is the only country, which has given us more than 100 million vaccinations completely free during Corona. We bought the vaccine from another place. And the US didn't just provide the vaccine, they paid for it to be delivered to our homes.”
“After the arrival of the Rohingyas, the country that stood by the most is America. Many other countries paid well at first but then cut back. But I am going to that country, I will definitely appreciate these works. We will also talk about how to increase our trade,” he added.
@The report was published in Bengali on print and online versions of The Bangladesh Pratidin on April 8 and rewritten in English by Tanvir Raihan.
