US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas laid emphasis on advancing the relations between Bangladesh and the United States taking advantage of the opportunities and addressing the challenges through joint efforts.
“We're ready to go just as fast as Bangladesh is in advancing the partnership," the envoy said during the US Embassy's inaugural episode of “AmTalk” premiered on its verified Facebook page on Friday evening.
He discussed US-Bangladesh bilateral relations, including security cooperation, democracy, human rights, elections, trade, and people-to-people ties in their inaugural episode of “AmTalk” conducted by US Embassy spokesperson Karla Thomas.
Ambassador Haas noted the enormous achievements that Bangladesh made over the past 50 years and mentioned that it is an incredible development.
This year, Bangladesh and the United States are celebrating the 50th anniversary of friendship -Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken kicked off a busy programme of engagements for the year ahead by marking the milestone during their meeting on April 4 in Washington, DC.
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At the event, Ambassador Haas reiterated that the United States has no preference and it does not favour any particular party or platform in Bangladesh but wants to see an “open and competitive process” as Bangladesh is heading towards the next national election.
“I want to be very clear that the US has no preference. We’ve no vote. We don’t favour any particular party, platform or anything else that is not our role,” he said.
Ambassador Haas said they would like to see the same thing as what the people of Bangladesh would like to see - an election run at an international standard that allows the people of Bangladesh to choose their next leaders in an “open and competitive” process free of violence.
The US envoy said he very much welcomes some of the signals and signs that he is receiving in terms of holding a transparent election.
He referred foreign minister Dr AK Abdul Momen and said he (Momen) has made it clear that Bangladesh will welcome international observers.
