Kerry leaves Dhaka for New Delhi

US Secretary of State John Kerry has left Dhaka for New Delhi ending his whirlwind maiden visit on Monday. State Minister for Foreign Affairs Md Shahriar Alam saw him off at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 5:35pm. During his meeting with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office, Kerry said the United States would work together with Bangladesh to fight terrorism and reiterated its offer to provide experts to this end. “We need to exchange information to combat terrorism,” he said. In the meeting, he highly praised Bangladesh’s tremendous development in socioeconomic progress. The US secretary of state also showed his country’s eagerness to work closely with Bangladesh in other sectors like climate, health and energy. Kerry was the first US secretary of state who visited the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum. During visiting to the museum where Bangabandhu was assassinated along with his family members on the night of August 15, 1975, he noted in the comment book that Bangladesh is moving ahead in line with the vision of Bangabandhu under Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's strong leadership. Leader of the Opposition Raushan Ershad had a conversation with Kerry after his EMK Centre speech. BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia also met him at the US embassy’s chancery. Kerry also paid a visit to a garment factory in the capital’s Mirpur. The US Secretary of State arrived here on Monday morning on a nine-hour visit packed with a series of meetings to discuss bilateral and global issues that both sides expect to take the relations to ‘new heights’. Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali received Kerry at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on his arrival at 9:45am from Geneva by a special aircraft.