US Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan Mozena stressed the need for good relations between Bangladesh and India at a programme yesterday.
Mozena was delivering a speech on US-Bangladesh partnership at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies in the city.
The ambassador said Chinese engagement with Bangladesh is a good thing. “We see Chinese engagement here is very constructive,” he stated.
“Of course, Bangladesh is going to have good relations with India; it has no option but to do that,” Mozena said.
He visited many districts in the bordering areas and found potentials for trade with the seven sisters.
“It’s not really happening now. It should be huge. They don’t have any apparel industry. They should get all apparels from here,” he said.
“I am hopeful that America will be able to provide a second [naval ship] cutter though no decision has been made yet to this end,” he said.
Washington has already provided a cutter to the Bangladesh Navy. The 378 feet cutter Somudra Joy is the largest vessel in the Bangladesh Navy. It visited the Philippines to provide disaster relief and also joined the international search for the missing Malaysian Air Flight.
The ambassador said the US believes those who commit crimes against humanity should be held accountable. “They should be held accountable by processes fully consistent with domestic laws and fully consistent with international obligations,” he said.
Human rights situation is an area where Bangladesh and the US differ. “If you read our human rights report, you can see our concern about respect for human rights, concerns about extrajudicial killings, abductions, disappearances – it’s all documented in our annual human rights report. That is one area of divergence,” he said.
The ambassador said he was posted to Bangladesh as he had simply demanded to be here.
Earlier, the government asked the United States for military aircrafts under the Excess Defence Article system.
“We made the request during the US-Bangladesh Security Dialogue held here last month,” said a senior official of the foreign ministry.
After the security dialogue in April, US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Tom Kelly said Bangladesh sought more military equipment from the United States. “Bangladesh did express its interest in receiving more equipment from the US. There are various ways for Bangladesh to obtain military equipment from the United States,” he said.
In 1997, Bangladesh procured four C130B cargo aircrafts from the US under the Excess Defence Article. Dhaka received $2.5 million in assistance under the US foreign military financing programme in 2012.
