Staff Reporter :
The United States is discussing terms with Bangladesh government to offer a security package for countering terrorism and violent extremism.
“We’ve been refining our package and figuring out what we’re going to provide. First of all what your government agencies need,” US Ambassador in Dhaka Marcia Bernicat said on Sunday.
The Ambassador said this while talking to reporters at the Foreign Ministry after her separate meetings with Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali and Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque during which they discussed bilateral relationship between the two countries.
When asked whether the US is pursuing any new agenda with Bangladesh, Marcia Bernicat who had a number of meetings at the Ministry in the last couple of weeks, said there is ‘constant evolution’ more or less on the same agenda but new things come like blue economy and opportunities that lie.
Responding to another query, the envoy said they are, at this point, more or less talking about various requests they received from various agencies and what they are planning to do to respond to those requests.
The US Ambassador said Bangladesh and the United States have three prescribed talks and Security Dialogue is one of the things they are tracking.
“Again, there’s no single point on the agenda. There’re so many aspects of security cooperation. It’s a very broad and rich agenda actually on the security side,” she said while responding to a question on the upcoming security dialogue.
Bernicat said they also discussed the 71st regular session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) that will begin at UN Headquarters on September 13 and the sideline events.
She also talked about the potential of blue economy and how US investors can be attracted to come and invest here.
Bangladesh and the United States will discuss ways to further strengthen security cooperation between the two countries with specific focus on ‘mechanisms to counter terrorism’ in a better way and other new issues in the coming security dialogue, said Foreign Ministry sources.
The other current security issues, including military and non-military cooperation between the two countries will also be discussed in the fifth Security Dialogue, likely to be held in Dhaka in October.
Both sides are now working to finalise a date.
The security dialogue usually covers a broad range of topics, including strategic priorities and regional issues, security assistance, cyber-security, peacekeeping, military-to-military cooperation, and counter-terrorism, said the release.
Humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, maritime and other related issues are likely to be discussed in the security dialogue, too.
On September 11, 2015, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Todd Chapman and Mizanur Rahman, Secretary (Bilateral & Consular), chaired the dialogue on security issues, held in Washington D.C.
The dialogue reflected the growing defence relationship with Bangladesh, and two countries shared commitment to peace and prosperity in the region.
The US side said they always look at what kind of training is required in strengthening counterterrorism efforts and countering violent extremism.
