Bangladesh and US will form a monitoring mechanism for addressing the challenges and pending issues as the two countries are deepening their ties on multiple fronts.
“If we can have a monitoring mechanism on the dialogues that take place between the two countries and the pending issues or the challenges that are there. We may start it from July,” Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen said after a meeting with US Ambassador Peter Haas at the foreign ministry today (May 18, 2022).
He said Bangladesh has such a monitoring mechanism with many countries including Japan and India. “I don’t see any problem with that in principle. It is important to see the progress of the dialogues from time to time.”
Bangladesh and US have a number of dialogues including the Partnership Dialogue, Security Dialogue, Defence Dialogue, High-Level Economic Dialogue etc. The economic dialogue, which is scheduled in early June, will discuss mainly US investments and Bangladesh’s export.
In the Economic Forum, the issue of sanctions on Rapid Action Battalion may also come up on the sideline, Masud said, adding that “We are exploring the legal provisions and have advanced to some extent.”
Separately, after the meeting, Peter Haas said they had a conversation about all the dialogues over the last couple of months and the High-Level Economic Dialogue to be held in June.
“We had a conversation about how we continue to move our relationship forward and how we can be action-oriented,” said the US ambassador.
