Staff Reporter :A bilateral meeting between Bangladesh and the United States will be held in Washington next Thursday. Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali and US Secretary of State John Kerry will head the respective delegations, a Foreign Ministry press release said on Monday. The meeting will be held on the sidelines of a White House-sponsored summit on countering violent extremism. Foreign Office also expected that the meeting would help take the ties between the two countries to a new height.Mahmood Ali is scheduled to leave Dhaka today [Tuesday] to attend the ‘Countering Violent Extremism Summit’ on Feb 18-19 at the invitation of John Kerry. He will lead a three-member delegation to the ministerial component of the summit. Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque will accompany the Foreign Minister to both the Ministerial Summit and the bilateral meeting.It will be the Foreign Minister’s first official visit to the USA since taking office. He is expected to return home on February 21. Foreign Ministry Officials said that the entire gamuts of bilateral relations as well as regional and international issues are expected to come up in the meeting.Diplomatic sources said that Dhaka was keen to have a one-to-one meeting on the sidelines as it will be the first visit of the foreign minister after the Awami League -led government assumed the office last year following the 10th parliamentary elections.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, ministers and high officials from more than 50 countries, and private sectors, and civil society representatives will take part in the summit.The main objective of the summit is to share ideas and experiences among cross sections of actors around the globe towards developing a shared understanding on countering violent extremism.The White House will host the summit to highlight domestic and international efforts to prevent violent extremists, according to a White House statement.The conference is taking place for inspiring individuals or groups in the United States and elsewhere against acts of violence, efforts made even more imperative in light of recent, tragic attacks in Ottawa, Sydney, and Paris.This summit will build on the strategy the White House released in August of 2011, Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States, the first national strategy to prevent violent extremism domestically.UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, ministers, and high officials from more than fifty countries, and private sector and civil society representatives would attend the summit.The core purpose of the summit is to share ideas and experiences among the relevant stakeholders across the globe to develop a common understanding on countering violent extremism.Meanwhile, the US-Bangladesh relations took a new turn since 2009 when the Awami League came to power for a second time after the end of military rule in 1990.There have been irritants in the relations particularly over the government’s steps to reform Grameen Bank, and later holding the 10th parliamentary elections on Jan 5 last year amid BNP boycott. But at the same time, the US-Bangladesh partnership was institutionalised with the holding of regular dialogues during that time.
