Lu, Saber leave the past behind and focus on the future during meeting

The US assistant secretary of state is meeting with several officials, including the environment minister, during his Dhaka trip

Donald Lu, US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, has spoken with Saber Hossain Chowdhury, Bangladeshi minister of environment, forest and climate change, on how the two countries can coordinate in various fields with the aim of environmental protection.

A delegation led by Lu held a meeting with Saber at the Secretariat on Wednesday.

After the meeting, the environment minister spoke to the media.

At the start, he said, "We talked about the future, not about the past. I want to inform you all in advance to facilitate the questions from reporters."

Relations between the Awami League government and the United States turned tense ahead of the parliamentary elections in January over various issues, including human rights and participatory polls. The US announced a strict visa policy for Bangladesh in the interest of free, impartial and uninterrupted elections.

However, Lu's visit five months after the election shows signs of thawing ties.

Saber said, "Our discussion focused on how we can advance the relationship between Bangladesh and America in the future. We talked about how Bangladesh and America can work together to deal with the impact of climate change.”

“When talking about the climate, issues of environment, forests and biodiversity come up. We will try to bring cooperation in these areas into a framework in the coming days. So maybe we could have something like a working group. We will undertake a five-year programme. What will be done under this programme each year will be laid out.”

The environment minister said, “The American private sector is also interested in the programme to combat climate change. American companies are interested in parts of our Mujib Climate Prosperity Plan.”

Saber said that fruitful discussions also took place regarding the free cooperation of NASA's satellite images for environment and climate protection in the future.

He said, "In today's discussion on environment and climate, we both had the same position. We not only discussed financial cooperation, but also mutual cooperation in research and getting technical information. NASA has several satellites currently providing data to several countries. Maybe in the future they will provide this satellite data for South Asian countries. They will also consider Bangladesh and maybe we will get it at a very low cost or for free.”

"Through the data we will get real-time data on where deforestation is happening, where the sea level is rising. It will be big for us. We have a coalition with them on smart agriculture. A good fruitful discussion took place on these issues. Based on today's discussion, we will sit and define the areas where work is necessary in the coming days."

US official Lu arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday for a three-day visit.

The US official’s itinerary kicked off with a dinner at the home of Salman F Rahman, the prime minister’s adviser on private industry and investment on Tuesday night.

He is also scheduled to sit for bilateral talks with Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen.

He will also hold a courtesy meeting with Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud and representatives from civil society.