Washington has assured Dhaka of its full support to implement the national strategy adopted to address the issue of refugees and undocumented Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh.
The assurance came during a meeting between Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque and Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) Anne C Richard in Washington on Thursday.
The Bureau of PRM highly appreciated the government of Bangladesh for adopting the first-ever national strategy to address the issue.
At the meeting, Richard assured Bangladesh of US’ continued constructive engagement with the government of Myanmar to quickly and effectively resolve the problem of Muslims of Myanmar, according to a media release received here on Friday.
On September 9, Bangladesh Cabinet approved the National Strategic Paper in an effort to identify, locate and deport the undocumented Myanmar citizens to their homeland.
The Foreign Secretary thanked the US side for its continued engagements with Myanmar and he particularly appreciated US President’s insistence that the displacement of Myanmar Muslims should be resolved within Myanmar as that had its origin there.
Haque also met Acting Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security Rose Gottemoeller at the US Department of State and discussed wide range of global issues of mutual interests including security issues.
He expressed satisfaction at the regular completion of the security dialogue and the defense dialogue between the two countries and welcomed the third defense dialogue to be held in Dhaka on April 22.
The Foreign Secretary also met senior officials of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), Senior Director for South Asia of National Security Staff at the White House Nicholas Dean, and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State on Development Daniella Ballou-Aares.
The MCC officials congratulated Bangladesh on achieving eligibility for its assistance program according to MCC‘s 2014 Annual Scorecard and expressed optimism that in near future Bangladesh would be included in the threshold program.
The Foreign Secretary briefed the MCC on the recent achievements of Bangladesh in the economic and social sectors as well as in the governance and anticorruption measures.
The MCC officials assured of reflecting Bangladesh’s success in the Board of Directors Meeting to be held in December, 2014.
At the meeting with Senior Advisor on Development, the Foreign Secretary had an in-depth discussion on the possible areas of bilateral and multilateral engagements with the US Government on Post-2015 Development Agenda.
He stressed the need for US government’s leadership initiatives in advancing the concerns of the countries facing serious sustainable development challenges, including climate change impacts on vulnerable countries.
Haque offered possible partnership opportunities between the two countries on issues of mutual development including, among others, combating adverse impacts of climate change, water use efficiency, renewable Energy, technology transfer, and engagements in Blue Economy (Oceans and Seas).
Referring to President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry’s unwavering commitment in advancing the issues of sustainable development including climate change and clean energy both domestically and globally, the US senior advisor expressed US government’s keen interests in working with Bangladesh as the contours of new global partnership surrounding development issues take shape.
Haque briefed the White House Senior Director on the recent development in Bangladesh particularly the workers’ rights and workplace safety in the RMG sector.
The Senior Director appreciated the achievements made by Bangladesh in ensuring safety and rights of workers in the RMG sector within a very short span of time and acknowledged the commitment of the government.
Source: UNB Connect
