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Indo-Pacific stances of Bangladesh and the United States, upcoming national elections, security assistance, defence trade and cooperation featured a Bangladesh-US security dialogue which concluded Tuesday in Dhaka.
"Apart from the pure defence-related issues, all other security-related areas were discussed," Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen told newsmen after the 9th Bangladesh-US Security Dialogue was over.
The USA is pursuing Indo-Pacific Strategy reportedly aimed at countering China's expanding orbit of influence while, in response to America's bidding, Bangladesh of late rolled out its Indo-Pacific Outlook.
Terming the meeting "fruitful" the FS said both sides stressed the necessity of holding such meeting on a regular basis to remove any kind of misunderstanding.
He said the host side requested the US to lift sanctions against the RAB, and in response, the US side pointed out that it would require following "due process".
Countering terrorism and violent extremism, transnational crimes and broader regional-security issues also came up for discussion, officials said.
The two sides agreed to strengthen cooperation in both civil-and military-security domains.
They also discussed non-traditional security issues like climate change, energy security and transnational crimes. Bangladesh reaffirmed its stated position of "zero-tolerance" against any form of terrorism and emphasized continued cooperation in combating terrorism and violent extremism.
The meeting noted security cooperation as a key component in bilateral relations. The US side renewed its support to the armed forces and law- enforcement agencies of Bangladesh in enhancing their capacity through various forms of trainings, sharing of information and joint exercises.
The US side responded affirmatively to Bangladesh's call for working together in maritime-security matters.
Bangladesh reiterated that repatriation of the Rohingya is the ultimate solution to the protracted refugee crisis and sought greater international support to resolve the issue.
The US side lauded Bangladesh for hosting more than a million Rohingya people of Myanmar and assured remaining beside Bangladesh in extending humanitarian assistance, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry mentioned.
Khandker Masudul Alam, Director-General, North America Wing, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Mira Resnick, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Regional Security in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs of the US State Department, led their respective delegation.
Representatives of key government ministries and agencies of Bangladesh as well as the US government and the US Embassy participated in the talks.
Ms. Resnic made a courtesy call on Foreign Secretary Ambassador Masud Bin Momen after the dialogue.
mirmostafiz@yahoo.com