US assures full support to Bangladesh over refugee issue
The United Stated has assured of full support for implementing the first ever national strategy over the issue of refugees and undocumented Myanmar nationals in Bangladesh.
Appreciating the efforts of Bangladesh in addressing the issue, Anne C Richard, assistant secretary of Bureau of Population, Refugee and Migration (PRM), came up with the assurance during a meeting with Bangladesh Foreign Secretary Shahidul Haque at Washington DC yesterday.
Shahidul also met with Rose Gottemoeller, acting under secretary for arms control and international security at the US Department of State and discussed wide range of global issues of mutual interests including security issues, says a press release from the foreign ministry of Bangladesh.
The foreign secretary expressed satisfaction at the regular completion of security dialogue and defence dialogue between the two countries. He welcomed the third defence dialogue to be held in Dhaka on 22 April, 2014.
Earlier, Shahidul met a number of important US government officials including senior personnel at the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), Senior Director for South Asia of National Security Staff at the White House Nicholas Dean and Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State on Development Daniella Ballou-Aares.
During the meeting, MCC officials congratulated Bangladesh for achieving eligibility for its assistance programme according to MCC‘s 2014 Annual Scorecard and expressed optimism that in near future Bangladesh would be included in the threshold programme.
The foreign secretary briefed the MCC on the recent achievements of Bangladesh in the economic and social sectors as well as in the governance and anticorruption measures.
The MCC officials assured to reflect Bangladesh’s success in the Board of Directors Meeting to be held in December, 2014.
The foreign secretary later briefed White House Senior Director Nicholas Dean on recent developments in Bangladesh, particularly workers’ rights and workplace safety in RMG sector.
The senior director appreciated Bangladesh’s achievements in ensuring safety and rights of workers in the RMG sector within a very short span of time and acknowledged the commitment of the government.
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