Porimol Palma

Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen yesterday started a weeklong visit to two Asean countries, aiming to boost relations with the bloc and push the agenda of Rohingya repatriation.

Bangladesh’s national election next year will be critical in determining whether the country moves towards greater democracy or greater autocracy, said a recently released policy document of the US.

Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) has started investigation into the allegations of syndication in the recruitment of Bangladeshi workers in the Southeast Asian country.

Dr Amal Jadou, Palestine’s deputy foreign minister, talks to Porimol Palma of The Daily Star about the decades long Palestine-Israel conflict, and the recent escalation of violence against the Palestinians.

Dhaka will be focusing on water sharing, waiver of anti-dumping duty on jute and energy security during the foreign minister-level Joint Consultative Commission meeting scheduled in Delhi tomorrow.

After a meeting with Expatriates’ Welfare Minister Imran Ahmed on June 1, Malaysian Human Resources Minister M Saravanan said the migration cost for the Bangladeshis going to Malaysia under the new deal would be zero.

The US will push for labour reforms and cotton exports to Bangladesh, while Dhaka plans to seek reinstatement of the GSP trade benefit during the High-Level Economic Partnership Dialogue in Washington DC, to be held today.

British International Investment (BII) has embarked on an ambitious plan of lending $450 million to Bangladesh over the next five years, finding that the country has a stable government and policy support for private sector development.

Unicef has recommended that the government prioritise a countrywide remedial programme for recovering the learning loss caused by 18 months of school closure amid the Covid pandemic.

Bangladesh will seek to avail the GSP Plus facility, which will provide trade privileges after the country graduates from LDC status, during the 10th EU-Bangladesh Joint Commission meeting beginning in Brussels today.

US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom Rashad Hussain travelled to Bangladesh on April 17-20. He visited the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, met government officials, civil society and youth groups in Dhaka. In a written email interview on May 5, he shared with The Daily Star the purpose of his visit and the message he left here or will communicate to Washington.

Bangladesh and the US are holding the ninth defence dialogue in Hawaii today as the two countries seek to strengthen security cooperation in the changed geopolitical landscape.

Bangladesh and Denmark have recently signed Sustainable and Green Framework Engagement to strengthen the partnership on climate and green transition. It happened in Dhaka during the three-day visit of Denmark’s Crown Princess Mary and Danish Minister for Development Flemming Moller Mortensen. Before leaving Dhaka on April 27, Mortensen shared his views on future cooperation between the two countries with The Daily Star.

After over two years of pause, Dhaka and Washington engaged in a series of dialogues early April when the two countries celebrated half a century of diplomatic relationship -- both promising to deepen the bond in the next 50 years.

Crown Princess Mary of Denmark will make a three-day visit to Bangladesh beginning April 25 as the two countries seek to deepen cooperation on climate change, especially regarding renewable energy, and blue economy.

When it comes to US-Bangladesh relationship, one naturally points to the global superpower’s pro-Pakistani role during the Liberation War in 1971. Then comes the infamous tag “basket case” for Bangladesh by the then Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.

Bangladesh should abandon the mentality of having a duty-free regime, cheap loans or foreign aid and focus instead on making products competitive by improving management efficiency, logistics and business environment as the country approaches graduation from the grouping of the least-developed countries (LDCs) in 2026.

On the surface, the 8th US-Bangladesh Partnership Dialogue was a success.

Brac, a Bangladeshi non-governmental organisation, has retained its place as the world’s largest NGO for the last seven consecutive years.

DS: Bangladesh’s priority in the dialogue will be withdrawal of the US sanctions on Rab and reinstatement of the Generalised System of Preferences facility that was suspended in 2013. Do you think that Bangladesh will be able to make any headway?