The Bangladesh government is sending its top diplomat to Washington for formally negotiating with the US to upgrade political relationship.
Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Hoque will fly to Washington from Dubai to lead the third Bangladesh-US Partnership Dialogue to be held on October 28-29. US State Department Under-secretary Wendy Sherman will lead the US side at the dialogue.
“We would like to deepen and widen our bilateral relationship with the US,” the Bangladesh foreign secretary said.
Dhaka is engaged with Washington in a wide range of areas including trade, investment, assistance, security cooperation and people-to-people contact.
This will be the first such dialogue after the January 5 election which Awami League won despite voters in 153 out of 300 constituencies not getting to practice their franchise. Washington had been vocal about the election and issued several statements expressing disappointment.
On July 17, US ambassador designate to Bangladesh Marcia Stephens Bloom Bernicat testified before a US Senate body that the election was “undeniably flawed” and asked the political parties to engage in constructive dialogue that could lead to a more representative government.
Another Bangladesh Foreign Ministry official said democracy and human rights were two of US’s most favourite subjects. “Sometimes it is rhetoric and in some cases they mean it,” he said.
In case of North Korea, Sudan and Ethiopia, the US means it when it talks about these two issues. “But, in case of Bangladesh, they are never disengaged,” he said.
The partnership dialogue would lay a foundation for further political engagement at higher levels, the official said.
Asked about the nature of the bilateral dialogue, he said: “When the foreign office or foreign secretary engages in anything, it is essentially political in nature.”
Dominant issues
The two parties are set to discuss three broad areas: development and governance, trade and investment, and security cooperation. In cluster discussion, investment climate, labour and terrorism issues will dominate.
Many US companies wanted to do business in Bangladesh and the US side would ask Dhaka to improve the investment climate, the official said.
“They have interest in the energy sector and US-based Conocophilips have been awarded a contract to explore gas and oil in the Bay of Bengal,” said another Foreign Ministry official.
The company is also taking part in the tender process to get more blocks.
Dhaka would raise the issue of reinstating the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme for Bangladesh, he said.
Washington suspended GSP facility for Dhaka in June 2013 following the Rana Plaza collapse.
Blue economy
Dhaka is planning to seek cooperation from Washington for the blue economy. “We may share a concept paper on forming a regional bloc in the Bay of Bengal,” the Bangladesh foreign secretary said.
Dhaka has also discussed the issue with India during the Joint Consultative Commission meeting between Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj in September and they had agreed to cooperate, he said.
Bangladesh floated the idea of forming the bloc – the Bay of Bengal Partnership for Blue Economy – at an international workshop held in Dhaka last month.
The government has adopted the blue economy outlook after it had resolved maritime boundary disputes with India and Myanmar.
The Maldives, Srilanka, India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia are the coastal and littoral states in the region.
