US reiterate to ensure free and fair election in Bangladesh

Staff Reporter :
During the ninth US-Bangladesh Partnership Dialogue, US Under Secretary Victoria Nuland stressed the significance of ensuring that elections in Bangladesh are conducted freely and fairly.

She further emphasised the commitment of the United States to advocate for human rights, labour rights, and freedom of expression in the country.
The statement came during the Partnership Dialogue held at the US Department of State in Washington DC on Wednesday where key bilateral and global issues of mutual interest were discussed.

Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland led their respective delegations to the dialogue.
Responding to the US call, Foreign Secretary Momen 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 levels, a press release said on Thursday.

The US side appreciated the Bangladesh Prime Minister’s commitment to free and fair elections as well as openness to engage international election monitors.
Apart from this, 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 Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Under Secretary Nuland acknowledged the Bangladesh Government’s announcement to review the Digital Security Act by this year. She also emphasised the importance of continuing progress with the labour sector reform in order to attract enhanced investment from the US.

Foreign Secretary briefed the US side about Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’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.

Under Secretary Nuland also noted number of areas of convergence between the two countries’ respective Indo-Pacific documents.

Both sides expressed satisfaction over 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.

Regarding the Rohingya issue, Under Secretary Nuland appreciated Bangladesh’s remarkable generosity in hosting the Rohingyas from Myanmar and assured USA’s continued humanitarian support.

Foreign Secretary Momen briefed Nuland 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 the USA Muhammad Imran and senior officials from relevant ministries and Bangladesh Embassy in Washington were present at the meeting.

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.