City Desk :
Donald Lu, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, has spoken with Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Bangladeshi minister of environment, forest and climate change, on how the two countries can coordinate in various fields with the aim of environmental protection.
A delegation led by Lu held a meeting with Saber at the Secretariat on Wednesday, reports bdnews24.com.
After the meeting, the environment minister spoke to the media.
At the start, he said, “We talked about the future, not about the past. I want to inform you all in advance to facilitate the questions from reporters.”
Relations between the Awami League government and the United States turned tense ahead of the parliamentary elections in January over various issues, including human rights and participatory polls.
The US announced a strict visa policy for Bangladesh in the interest of free, impartial and uninterrupted elections.
However, Lu’s visit five months after the election shows signs of thawing ties.
Saber said, “Our discussion focused on how we can advance the relationship between Bangladesh and America in the future. We talked about how Bangladesh and America can work together to deal with the impact of climate change.”
“When talking about the climate, issues of environment, forests and biodiversity come up. We will try to bring cooperation in these areas into a framework in the coming days.
So maybe we could have something like a working group. We will undertake a five-year programme. What will be done under this programme each year will be laid out.”