US Secretary of State Blinken’s advisor Chollet to visit Bangladesh

Derek Chollet, a senior policy advisor to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, will arrive in Bangladesh on a two-day visit on Tuesday.

The purpose of his visit is to strengthen the bilateral relations, foreign ministry spokesperson Seheli Sabrin said on Thursday.

“The US-Bangladesh relationship is the same as before. We are working together to solve all the problems,” Sabrin said.

Chollet, a State Department counsellor, serves at the rank of under secretary as a senior policy advisor to Blinken on a wide range of issues and conducts special diplomatic assignments as directed by the secretary of state.

Foreign ministry officials said that issues such as bilateral trade, democracy, human rights, security and the Rohingya crisis are likely to be on the agenda during his Feb 14-15 visit.

Also, Bangladesh will keep pressing on the lifting of US sanctions against the Rapid Action Battalion, the anti-crime and anti-terrorism elite force, and its former and current officials.

Chollet is especially coming to discuss the Rohingya issue and see the crisis on site, Bangladesh’s position in dealing with them, and the humanitarian aid the country has provided, said Sabrin.

Bangladesh is currently harbouring more than 1.1 million Rohingya with the camp at Kutupalong in Cox’s Bazar the world's largest refugee settlement.

“We are deeply concerned about the situation in Myanmar which is only getting worse,” Chollet said in a TV interview ahead of his visit.

“And we, the US, are doing what we can in cooperation with Bangladesh to try to ease the pressure on Bangladesh from this refugee crisis by providing critical assistance to Bangladesh to assist in its humanitarian needs, but then also with efforts to try to bring some of these refugees back here to the United States,” he said.

Chollet’s Bangladesh tour comes after a series of recent visits by several high-level US officials.

The importance of the Indo-Pacific to US national interests in the coming decades is part of the national security strategy of the country, Chollet said.

“Bangladesh is a critical piece of that puzzle. That’s why we have seen such a steady stream of high-level visitors,” he said.

He also said US concerns about human rights and democracy in Bangladesh origin from its “friendship” with Bangladesh.

“We acknowledge here in the United States that our democracy is not perfect but that we are always trying to make ourselves better and to acknowledge our mistakes and improve,” he said adding, “That’s why when raise concerns about the freedom of the press, about free and fair elections, about the ability of civil society to organize and express itself freely, we do so in the spirit of humanity but also in the spirit of partnership and friendship.”