US Secretary of State John Kerry will be coming to Dhaka on his first visit soon, Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali has told
“The time has not been fixed yet,” he said. “But he’ll come”. He told me: “I must go”.
The
foreign minister returned from Washington on Sunday morning after his
first bilateral meeting with the Secretary of State on the sidelines of
the White House-sponsored summit on countering violent extremism.
The
meeting was held amid violence back home in with the BNP and its allies
enforcing a countrywide transport blockade and shutdowns to press for
interim elections.
More than 100 people have been killed, most of them in firebomb attacks on public vehicles.
Kerry condemned the targeting of civilians during the blockade and called upon the opposition to immediately halt such attacks.
He
stated there could be “no tolerance” for tactics that target innocent
citizens or “inhibit political expression” in a democratic Bangladesh.
He
also called for government action to end the violence peacefully, and
underscored the government’s role in ensuring peaceful political
expression for all parties.
Kerry has also reiterated the US
support to help achieve a political solution that returns Bangladesh to
its democratic foundations.
“They called for ending violence and
its (end) immediately,” the foreign minister told bdnews24.com when
asked about the US position.
There is a perception in Bangladesh
that the US is not happy with the government as it did not find the last
year’s election credible with more than half of the seats returning
uncontested winners.
The new US ambassador, however, made it
clear that she would work with everyone in the government to make the
relations “even stronger”.“They are very much with the government. They want to strengthen the hand of the government,” the foreign minister said.
“He
(Kerry) said Bangladesh is a democracy. We want to support democratic
process,” Ali said, “He categorically called the opposition to stop
violence”.
“He never spoke about any interim elections or any
dialogue for holding elections. He was categorical in his call, stop
violence”.
“We (US) want it to stop,” he said.
The meeting was held at Kerry’s own office.
Asked
what his reply was when Kerry reiterated the US support to help achieve
a political solution in Bangladesh, the minister said he thanked him
and said, “We’ll see”.
He said Kerry appreciated Bangladesh’s economic and social development and termed it as “role model”.
“We are with you (government), he said.Ali requested Kerry to expedite the repatriation of Rashed Chowdhury,
one of the convicted killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who
is reportedly hiding in the US.
He heard it. “I expect we’ll see positive result”.
Ali said Kerry specifically sought Bangladesh’s support in climate change advocacy.
He appreciated Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her efforts in climate change adaptation and response programmes.
“US wants to work together with Bangladesh on climate change issues”.
“We
have broad-based cooperation with the US,” Ali said, citing a number of
areas the US and Bangladesh work together and bilateral mechanisms such
as “security dialogue”, “partnership dialogue”.
Ali said Kerry had appreciated him for joining the summit on countering violent extremism.In the summit on Feb 19, the foreign minister once again denounced all forms of terrorism and violent extremism and their manifestations.
Ali said he dubbed recent acts like throwing petrol bombs on public vehicles and train “almost akin to the terror tactics being used by the IS and others”.
He also expressed his concern at the summit that BNP and other political parties in Bangladesh were “directly inciting an extremist agenda in order to challenge the democracy, non-communal and non-confrontational narrative we are trying to propagate from the government”.
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