US call for fresh nat'l poll remains: Mozena

The United States still stands by its position to call for immediate dialogue between the government and the opposition outside the parliament for finding a way forward to hold a free, fair, credible and participatory national election as soon as possible.
The American government's statement issued on January 6 and US official Nisha Desai Biswal's testimony in the US Senate's Foreign Relations Committee on February 11 remain unchanged, US envoy Dan Mozena said yesterday.
Biswal termed the January 5 elections "deeply flawed" and said they did not credibly express the will of the people and called for immediate dialogue to agree on new elections as soon as possible.
Mozena also carefully avoided an answer to describe the current relation between the Sheikh Hasina and Obama administrations although he had stated in February that the US interaction with the government was "not a business as usual".
Addressing a Meet-the-Press at the American Club, Mozena, however, said the partnership between the two countries remained unchanged.
The press interaction was organised within days of Mozena's return from a three-week trip to the US where he had series of meetings with US congressmen and state department officials and Bangladeshi diaspora on political situation in Bangladesh, and follow-up actions of the Rana Plaza disaster and Tazrin Fashions fire.
Mozena cited the recent signing of the open sky agreement, MoUs on cooperation to fight terrorism, trans-national crimes agreement, and Ticfa. These steps are "our keys of engagements" and show deepening partnership, he said.
Referring to his meetings with Bangladeshi-Americans in Texas and California, Mozena said he conveyed four messages to them which include making investment in Bangladesh, particularly in IT sector, mentoring entrepreneurship, and increasing sending of 33,408 Bangladeshi students for higher studies in the USA.
He said the three secretaries of the government and five ambassadors including him were working on safety issues and garment workers' rights in line with the US GSP roadmap and sustainability compact to improve the situation in the apparel industry.