Legal notice seeks moving foreign reserve from US

A lawyer has served a legal notice on the government seeking the transfer of Bangladesh's foreign reserve from the US Federal Reserve.

Supreme Court lawyer Advocate Md Mahmudul Hasan sent the legal notice on Monday.

He told The Business Post, “I asked the recipient to take necessary steps within 30 days in this regard.”

The notice said the US sanctions on Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) is part of a conspiracy as Bangladesh has become very important in the global geopolitical arena. It said freezing or confiscating the assets of various countries is part of the regular activities of the US authorities to put pressure on them.

The notice demanded that the least amount of Bangladesh’s foreign reserve be kept in the US and the rest be stored in safer countries in the form of gold.

In addition, Bangladesh should use local currencies with countries it has high trade volumes with, such as China, the notice said.

It further said Chinese currency renminbi should be used for trade with the East Asian country while business with India should be done in rupee.

A writ petition would be filed seeking directives from the High Court if necessary steps were not taken within 30 days, it added.