Counselor of the US Department of State Derek Chollet will meet senior officials in Bangladesh on Wednesday to discuss "coordination and response" to the Rohingya refugee crisis, strengthening cooperation in international fora, and advancing the “security partnership” between Dhaka and Washington.
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen received him on Tuesday afternoon at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.
He is leading a seven-member interagency delegation. The delegation includes Clinton White, Counselor to the Administrator at the USAID; Elizabeth Horst, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, US Department of State; Beth Van Schaack, Ambassador-at-Large for Global Criminal Justice and three other members.
During the visit, the US delegation will meet Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen.
They will also have a separate meeting with the Foreign Secretary along with senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday.
US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter D Haas and Embassy officials are expected to accompany the delegation in the meetings.
The US Counselor serves at the rank of under-secretary as a senior policy advisor to the US secretary of state on a wide range of issues and conducts special diplomatic assignments as directed by the secretary.
Bangladesh saw a series of senior US officials visiting it in recent months with the last one by US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia Donald Lu.
Derek Chollet will discuss ways to "advance Dhaka-Washington security partnership”
The US sees "huge potential" in their relationship with Bangladesh and a lot of "room to grow."
Counselor Chollet will lead a US delegation to Bangladesh and Pakistan on February 14-18 to meet with senior government officials, civil society members, and business leaders to highlight the importance of their bilateral partnership and reaffirm their shared goals, said the office of the spokesperson at the US Department of State.
Bangladesh said the visit of the US counselor will help strengthen its relations with the US.
The purpose of the visit is to strengthen bilateral relations and government-to-government ties with an elevated focus on the Rohingya humanitarian response, said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"It is a remarkable journey – 51 years. We are interested in deepening the ties," said the US counselor ahead of his visit.
Talking at the television talk show "Tritiyo Matra" online, the US counselor said he is coming to talk to senior officials and private sectors in Bangladesh to discuss ways to deepen the ongoing cooperation between the two countries.
Mentioning that the US places democracy and human rights at the heart of their foreign policy, Chollet said Bangladesh is such a good long-standing friend, and they have "very frank exchanges" about the concerns they have.
The issues related to the Rohingya crisis and the overall security in the Indo-Pacific region are likely to get priority during his visit.
"We are deeply concerned about the situation in Myanmar which is only getting worse," said Chollet.
The US wants a solution to the Rohingya crisis, and the solution lies in Myanmar but instability is growing inside Myanmar.
The US counselor said they are doing whatever they can in cooperation with Bangladesh and trying to ease the pressure on the country from the refugee crisis by providing critical assistance to it to support its humanitarian needs, also with efforts to try to bring some of the refugees back to the US.
There are "a whole host of issues" that the two countries can work together, said the US counselor.
Source: United News of Bangladesh