The United States wants to deepen its ties across South Asia, particularly with Bangladesh and India, as it sees real potential to have stronger relations.
“We’re at a moment of real potential in the opportunity to deepen our relations across South Asia, but in particular with these two partners – India and Bangladesh,” US Deputy Secretary of State Stephen E Biegun told a telephonic briefing on Tuesday.
Deputy Secretary Biegun said his recent visit to both Bangladesh and India was part of a series of engagements the United States has had with both of these critical partners.
“And it’s one that you’ll see continuing to progress over the weeks and months ahead,” he said.
Biegun said they have an intervening election that will happen but he reiterate his confidence that regardless of the outcome of their elections, the future is quite bright for relations between the United States and these two very important South Asian partners.
“It’s certainly a task that I’m happy to be a part of and I’m very much looking forward to our next engagements,” he said.
Biegun returned to Washington on Saturday night after a week-long trip to Delhi and to Dhaka, where he had “extraordinarily warm and constructive discussions” with the governments in both countries, and it leaves me very confident that our relationship with both of these countries is positioned for only further success in the future.”
The purpose of his trip to Bangladesh, he said, was to take stock of and deepen US relations and set a course forward for how they can expand cooperation in people-to-people areas; in various areas of government interest, including science and culture and medicine in particular.
The purpose of his visit was also to talk about security issues and how they make sure that they do their utmost, working together, with a series of partners in the Indo-Pacific to promote a free and open Indo-Pacific that guarantees sovereignty and prosperity for the nations in the region.
In Bangladesh, Biegun said, they had a chance to discuss a number of important opportunities in the relationship, including close cooperation on Covid-19.
