Washington's relationship with Dhaka doesn't define ties of Bangladesh with any other country: US State Dept.

A senior US State Department official has said Washington does not define its relationship with Dhaka taking into account Bangladesh's ties with Russia and China or any other country.

US Deputy Assistant Secretary Afreen Akhter said this in an exclusive interview with BSS diplomatic correspondent Tanzim Anwar in Dhaka this week.

She said Washington had a broad range in its multifaceted, multi-dimensional relationship with Bangladesh and found lots of synergies as Dhaka recently released its Indo-Pacific Outlook (IPO) that had many elements in common with the US Indo Pacific Strategy (IPS).

"Broadly, we see lot of synergies between our two documents, our strategy, and your outlook. We both are focused on building economic prosperity in the region and through infrastructure, through our substantial development projects," the senior State Department official said.

Her comments came months after US Ambassador in Dhaka Peter Haas said Washington does not force countries to choose sides over relationships with other countries and particularly with Beijing, as "we don't expect every country to have the same exact assessment of China as we do".

Talking to BSS, Akhter gave a note of thanks to Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's recent joint statement with Japanese PM Fumio Kishida "condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine as a violation of an International law and the UN charter".

"I just want to say Prime Minister Hasina's recent statement on Russia . . . we really welcome it very positively," she said.

Indo Pacific Outlook (IPO)

The US diplomat welcomed Dhaka's announcement of IPO and said the two documents -- US's IPS and Bangladesh's IPO -- share a "tremendous amount in common".

Apart from the US, the other members of QUAD -- an informal strategic forum of the US, Australia, India and Japan -- welcomed the Bangladesh IPO with Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar this week saying "we are glad" about Bangladesh's outlook.

Akhter said Bangladesh's IPO laid emphasis on the "maritime security" issue which was a key focus of the US and the other QUAD partners and "so we will look for opportunities to continue to collaborate on that".

She said economic growth is a key component of Bangladesh IPO while the US is the top export destination for Bangladesh as well as the top investor in Bangladesh and "so again, we really look to build that out in the years to come".

Security Cooperation

The US official said the US was currently working "very closely" with the Bangladesh government on the remaining elements of General Security of Military Information Agreement (GSOMIA), a foundational government-to-government agreement that permits greater collaboration.

"We hope that (GSOMIA) will be signed in the coming months," she said.

GSOMIA is a reciprocal, legally-binding agreement between the US and other governments to protect classified military information regarding their security cooperation.

Akhter said that the US embassy defense attaché in Dhaka was in very regular consultation with concerned Bangladesh authorities on security cooperation.

She said the US planned to provide radar technology in countries throughout the Indo-pacific region to develop a common operating picture in the maritime domain under its Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness Initiative (IPMDA).

RAB Sanctions

The US deputy assistant secretary said Washington was pleased to see "a substantial decrease of extrajudicial killings" after its sanction on Bangladesh's elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB).

"We welcome that decrease . . .

"I would say that with respect to lifting sanctions on the RAB, we need to see long term systemic change for sanctions to be considered to be removed," the state department official said.

The deputy assistant secretary also said Washington was concerned about the application of Bangladesh's Digital Security Act and particularly "where the Digital Security Act has been applied".

Rohingya Issue

The state department official said her country was working to find a longer-term durable solution to the crisis through repatriation of Rohinyas to Myanmar under the right conditions, a task she termed as "difficult and challenging".

"We believe very firmly that the conditions in Myanmar right now do not warrant a safe voluntary dignified return and so we would oppose any effort to forcibly repatriate individuals to Myanmar," she added.

Akhter said the US might take more Rohingyas to the USA in future under its third country resettlement initiative which has started last December.

"We started a very small pilot program to relocate some of the most vulnerable Rohingya refugees to the US . . . we are hoping to increase the number of third country relocation," she said.

Akhter said the US was the largest donor by far to the Rohingya crisis and regretted that other members of the UN Security Council "have not provided a dime (as humanitarian support for the Rohingyas)".

Investment Plans

Akhter said the US government was giving priority on Bangladesh's clean energy sector for investment. "We will be looking for opportunities to collaborate with Bangladesh on and looking forward

She said the US private sector's relationships with Bangladesh was incredibly strong, though Bangladesh's regulatory environment needed to be improved to attract US business.

"Our trade attaché here is working with the government of Bangladesh for making Bangladesh economy more transparent and more attractive for the US private sector investors."

Besides, Akhter said that the US embassy's labour attaché here is also working very closely with Bangladesh government on improving labour conditions with respect of union registration and uniform application of the labour laws.

Akhter led the US delegation at the 6th Indian Ocean Conference (IOC) hosted by Dhaka from May 12 to 13.