Foreign secretary urges US to lift sanctions on RAB

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen has urged the US to lift the sanctions on the Rapid Action Batallion (RAB).

He said this during the 9th Bangladesh-US Partnership Dialogue held at the US Department of State in Washington, DC, on 3 May, where key bilateral and global issues of mutual interest were discussed.

Foreign Secretary Ambassador Masud Bin Momen and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Ambassador Victoria Nuland led their respective delegations.

Foreign Secretary Momen briefed the US side about the Prime Minister's visit to Japan and later to Washington, DC, to celebrate the 50 years of partnership between Bangladesh and the World Bank. He also shared the outline of Bangladesh's recently released Indo-Pacific outlook.

Ambassador Nuland noted number of areas of convergence between the two countries' respective Indo-Pacific documents. Foreign Secretary Momen also briefed his US counterpart about various measures taken by the Election Commission to pave the way for free and fair elections at both local and national level.

The US side appreciated the Bangladesh prime minister's express commitment on free and fair elections as well as openness to engage international election monitors.

The Bangladesh foreign secretary shared some of the positive developments on Bangladesh's recent human rights performance.

He reiterated the call for lifting the sanctions on RAB and extraditing Rashed Chowdhury, the self-confessed killer of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Ambassador Nuland acknowledged the Bangladesh Government's announcement to review the Digital Security Act by this year. She also emphasized the importance of continuing progress with the labour sector reform in order for attracting enhanced investment from the US. 

Both sides expressed satisfaction at the growing and vibrant business cooperation in a number of critical sectors. They agreed to continue working further on cyber security and data protection to enhance business engagements by the US tech giants in Bangladesh.

Ambassador Nuland appreciated Bangladesh's remarkable generosity in hosting the Rohingyas from Myanmar and assured USA's continued humanitarian support. Foreign Secretary Momen briefed her about the latest situation of the funding for Rohingya response as well as the renewed pilot scheme for repatriating a limited number of Rohingyas to Myanmar. Both sides agreed to further scale up the resettlement programme for some of the most vulnerable Rohingyas.

The two sides exchanged their views on the climate change related issues and discussed areas of cooperation in this regard. The Foreign Secretary invited Under Secretary Nuland to the 10th round of the Partnership Dialogue which will take place in Dhaka next year.

Bangladesh Ambassador to USA Muhammad Imran and senior officials from relevant Ministries and Bangladesh Embassy in Washington were present in the meeting. The US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas, Ambassador Donald Lu and senior officials from the US State Department, White House and the USAID were present from the US side.