No impact on US-BD relations following Trump's claim: Foreign affairs adviser

Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain ruled out any possible negative impact on Bangladesh-US relations on Tuesday (4 March), as Dhaka refuted President Donald Trump's claim.

"I don't see any reason for deteriorating relations with the United States," he told reporters when his attention was drawn to Dhaka's statement over President Trump's claim.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday said Trump's allegation that USAID provided $29 million to an organisation owned by two persons in Bangladesh is not true.

Hossain said President Trump did not make any allegations against anyone. "We also saw that there was nothing like that."

He said no investigation has been done into this, but they only tried to know what the issue is.

Hossain said they have found that in fact the money is given to an American organization which works with various NGOs here, and all the money has come through proper channels.

"Here, $29 million has been given to two people, that is not the case," Hossain added.

Responding to a question, the Adviser said, "I don't consider this to be a provocative remark (by US President)."

Hossain said they do not see any need to exaggerate the issue.

When asked about the use of the word 'untrue' in Bangladesh's statement, Hossain said, "It can be said. Since we have not found anything. There is nothing like that. So it was mentioned that it's not correct."

"Such projects are executed under the Development Objective Assistance Agreement (DOAG) between Bangladesh and the US, ensuring no individual influence in the decision-making process," said the MoFA in its statement on Monday.

Addressing the White House Governors Working Session on February 20, Trump claimed that the $29 million USAID fund landed with an obscure firm that he said was "a little outfit" with just two employees.

"Two people! They're very happy. Very rich. They'll be on the cover of a top business magazine -- for being great scammers," quipped the US president.

At another event on February 21, Trump again accused the agency of funneling $29 million to prop up a "radical left communist" in Bangladesh.

During President Trump's first term, USAID selected Democracy International (DI), a US-registered organisation -- to implement the project.

Multiple international organisations participated in a competitive bidding process, and USAID made its decision transparently.

Initially, SPL was a five-year project with a budget of $14 million. It was managed by USAID and co-funded by the UK's development agency DFID (now FCDO), which committed $10 million.