2 top officials from US, India fly in today

GBNEWS24DESK//

Two high-level foreign officials — US State Department Counselor Derek Chollet and Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra — are expected to arrive in Dhaka today.

While Chollet’s visit may prominently feature the Rohingya crisis and promoting democracy in Myanmar, Kwatra will hold the foreign office consultation to discuss bilateral relations ahead of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to New Delhi to attend the G20 Summit in September, said diplomatic sources.

During his two-day visit, Chollet, an official of the rank of an under-secretary, will meet Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen. He is expected to call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Chollet’s visit comes on the heels of a series of senior US officials’ tour of Bangladesh in recent months. In January alone, Eileen Laubacher, senior director for South Asia at the US National Security Council, and Donald Lu, US assistant secretary for South and Central Asia, visited Dhaka.

Though Bangladesh and the US have a robust relation, it was strained following the sanctions against Rab and seven of its current and former officials in December 2021.

Initially, Dhaka was in a mode of denial, but eventually it said it may have made some mistakes and will be making corrections when required.

Lu, during his visit, lauded Bangladesh for the reduced number of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.

While Washington is critical of Bangladesh’s 2018 national polls, media freedom, space for the civil society organisations, it is keen to deepen engagement with Dhaka given its geostrategic location in the Indo-Pacific region, which is becoming a place of competition among the global powers.

“Mr Derek Chollet is expected to discuss the ways of bolstering US-Bangladesh relations. … He will learn about the Rohingya situation on the ground and the humanitarian response,” Seheli Sabrin, spokesperson for the foreign ministry, told reporters last week.

A US delegation on Sunday started visiting the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar.

Diplomatic sources said the US is attaching increased importance to promoting democracy in Myanmar, and helping Rohingyas, with more than one million living in Cox’s Bazar camps.

In December last year, the US Congress passed the BURMA Act meant to impose tougher sanctions against the regime leadership, support the pro-democracy movement and provide critical humanitarian assistance.

A diplomatic source said the US has been the largest donor for the Rohingyas sheltered in Bangladesh, and under the BURMA Act, it is mandated to bolster support at a time when the humanitarian assistance for the Rohingyas is declining amid Russia-Ukraine war.