US
US keen to be number one investor in Bangladesh: Ambassador Haas
US Ambassador Peter Haas has said that his country wants to be the leading investor in Bangladesh.
"The United States intends to be number one investor in Bangladesh", he told reporters after visiting Meghnaghat 584 MW Combined cycle power project on Wednesday.
The Ambassador said that the US companies are excited by the market in Bangladesh.
Referring to his statement at the Bangladesh investment summit, he said the US companies are looking to invest in Bangladesh as the country has the eight largest population in the world.
"It's a fast growing economy and the government is trying to improve the governing environment. I'm optimistic the US will remain the number one investor in Bangladesh".
Mentioning the power plant as an efficient one in terms of environment, he urged the government to provide gas supply to the Meghnaghat power plant as it will generate electricity consuming half of the gas required for similar capacity of the power plant.
"This power plant will serve 700,000 homes using half of the gas compared to other power plants".
He said Bangladesh now navigates the global current crisis in terms of energy supply, energy cost and the difficulty of monetary supply
"There is no better metaphor that the US Companies and our people are with Bangladesh through rain or shine", he said while it was raining during his speech.
Joseph Giblin, Chief of the Economic Unit in U.S. Embassy, Dhaka, Chowdhury Nafeez Sararat, Managing Director, Mohd. Noor Ali, Chairman, Mohammad Jahir Uddin Mollah, Chief Executive Officer of the Company and Deepesh Nanda, CEO of GE Gas Power, South Asia among others, accompanied him during the visit.
Unique Meghnaghat Power Limited (UMPL), a consortium of Strategic Finance Limited, Unique Hotel & Resorts Limited and General Electric (GE) of USA, has been implementing the 584 MW Gas-based combined cycle power plant as independent power producer (IPP) at Meghnaghat in Narayanganj under a contract with the government.
State-owned Power Development Board (BPDB) will purchase electricity from the plant over a period of 22 years.
Project officials said that about 92 percent of the total project construction works have been completed and the plant will come into commercial operation in October 2023.
Mohd. Noor Ali, Chairman of UMPL said that it is a symbol of the capabilities of the private sector of Bangladesh. This is a highly efficient power plant and it will surely take top position in the demand order or merit order from the off-taker (BPDB).
UMPL Managing Director Chowdhury Nafeez Sarafat said that the contribution of US companies, including GE, in providing the latest technology gas turbines to Bangladesh's much-needed power infrastructure.
He also said that UMPL, a collaboration of international investors, including GE and Nebras, alongside lead investors from Bangladesh, has secured international debt financing from SERV, AIIB, DEG, and OPEC Fund. This financing will make it a world-class infrastructure project, providing cleaner, reliable, and affordable electricity to the people of Bangladesh.
Mentioning the project as a less carbon emitter he said the project will be a big contributor to the commitment of Bangladesh to achieve nationally determined contributions as per Paris Agreement.
In this plant, GE’s latest 9HA.01 Gas Turbine has been used which will operate at more than 62% efficiency whereas the traditional gas turbine efficiency is around 30-40 percent, he added.
Deepesh Nanda, CEO of GE Gas Power, South Asia said “GE Gas Power is committed to bring affordable, reliable and sustainable power generation technology to Bangladesh and has been contributing to transform the power sector in the country by offering advanced powering technology and power services solutions.
Asian shares mostly sink on jitters after US bank failure
Asian shares mostly fell Monday, shaken by a Wall Street tumble that set off worries the biggest United States bank failure in nearly 15 years might have ripple effects around the world.
But the falls were relatively subdued because of reassurances from U.S. officials that financial shocks would be mitigated.
Japan's benchmark Nikkei 225 slipped 1.6% to 27,685.86 in morning trading. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.3% to 7,125.90. South Korea's Kospi shed 0.4% to 2,385.25.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.4% to 19,594.07. The Shanghai Composite rose 0.3% to 3,238.98, as Chinese shares tracked a gain in U.S. futures. Dow futures were up 1.1% at 32,516.00. S&P 500 futures rose 1.4% to 3,952.50.
The recent developments in Chinese politics have also worked as a stabilizing factor. Major posts, including the governor of the Bank of China, as well as other political leaders, were announced, signaling a continuation of policy.
Also Read: Startup-focused Silicon Valley Bank becomes largest bank to fail since 2008 financial crisis
Before trading began in Asia, the U.S. Treasury Department, Federal Reserve and FDIC said Sunday that all Silicon Valley Bank clients will be protected and have access to their funds and announced steps designed to protect the bank’s customers and prevent more bank runs.
Regulators closed Silicon Valley Bank on Friday amid a run on the bank, which was the second-largest U.S. bank failure, behind the 2008 failure of Washington Mutual. They also announced Sunday that New York-based Signature Bank was being seized after it became the third-largest bank failure in U.S. history.
Following two bank failures, worries about financial stability and liquidity concerns were dominating the market landscape, said Stephen Innes, managing partner at SPI Asset Management in Hong Kong.
He said traders made nervous by the weekend's news could create “a ready-aim-fire Monday open.”
“With the market likely headed for a more turbulent period with US inflation on a collision course with Bank ‘theater of tragedy,’ now is probably not the best time for investor euphoria," Innes said.
But the sense that U.S. authorities were taking some steps to limit “the contagion effect” had somewhat of a calming effect, although “markets remain skittish” in Asia, said Venkateswaran Lavanya at Mizuho Bank.
Shares had tanked Friday on Wall Street, with the S&P 500 dropping 1.4% to cap its worst week since September.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 345 points, or 1.1%, while the Nasdaq composite sank 1.8%. The S&P 500 fell 56.73 points to 3,861.59. The Dow lost 345.22 to 31,909.64, and the Nasdaq dropped 199.47 to 11,138.89.
Some of the sharpest drops on Wall Street last week came from the financial industry. First Republic Bank tumbled 14.8%, while Charles Schwab lost another 11.7% after dropping 12.8% Thursday. Larger banks, which have been stress-tested by regulators following the 2008 financial crisis, held up better. JPMorgan Chase rose 2.5%.
In Tokyo trading, banking issues were sold, with MUFG Bank falling nearly 4%, echoing such falls on Wall Street. Shares in Mitsui Sumitomo Financial Group dipped 4.7% in morning trading.
Worries were growing recently that interest rates are set to go higher than expected after the Fed Reserve said it could reaccelerate the size of its rate hikes. The Fed is focusing on wage growth in particular in its fight against inflation. It worries too-high gains could cause a vicious cycle that worsens inflation.
Traders now largely expect the Fed to stick with a modest 0.25 point hike. Last month, the Fed slowed to that pace after earlier hiking by 0.50 and 0.75 points. The Fed has already raised rates at the fastest pace in decades and made other moves to reverse its tremendous support for the economy during the pandemic.
In energy trading, benchmark U.S. crude lost 26 cents to $76.42 a barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, fell 35 cents to $82.43 a barrel.
In currency trading, the U.S. dollar fell to 134.40 Japanese yen from 134.96 yen. The euro cost $1.0694, up from $1.0643.
US turns to new ways to punish Russian oligarchs for the war
The U.S. has begun an aggressive new push to inflict pain on Russia’s economy and specifically its oligarchs with the intent of thwarting the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
From the Treasury Department to the Justice Department, U.S. officials will focus on efforts to legally liquidate the property of Russian oligarchs, expand financial penalties on those who facilitate the evasion of sanctions, and close loopholes in the law that allow oligarchs to use shell companies to move through the U.S. financial system.
Andrew Adams, who heads the KleptoCapture task force, designed to enforce the economic restrictions within the U.S. imposed on Russia and its billionaires, told The Associated Press that the group is prioritizing its efforts to identify those who help Russians evade sanctions and violate export controls.
“These illicit procurement networks will continue to take up an ever-increasing amount of our bandwidth,” said Adams, who also serves as acting deputy assistant attorney general.
So far, more than $58 billion worth of sanctioned Russians’ assets have been blocked or frozen worldwide, according to a report last week from the Treasury Department. That includes two luxury yachts each worth $300 million in San Diego and Fiji, and six New York and Florida properties worth $75 million owned by sanctioned oligarch Viktor Vekselberg.
Also Read: US government moves to stop potential banking crisis
The U.S. has begun attempts to punish the associates and wealth managers of oligarchs — in Vekselberg's case, a federal court in New York indicted Vladimir Voronchenko after he helped maintain Vekselberg’s properties. He was charged in February with conspiring to violate and evade U.S. sanctions.
The case was coordinated through the KleptoCapture group.
“I think it can be quite effective to be sanctioning facilitators,” Adams said, calling them “professional sanctions evasion brokers.”
A February study led by Dartmouth University researchers showed that targeting a few key wealth managers would cause far greater damage to Russia than sanctioning oligarchs individually.
Other attempts to inflict pain on the Russian economy will come from the efforts to liquidate yachts and other property owned by Russian oligarchs and the Kremlin, turning them into cash to benefit Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has long called for Russian assets to be transferred to Ukraine, and former Biden administration official Daleep Singh told the Senate Banking Committee on Feb. 28 that forfeiting Russia's billions in assets held by the U.S. is “something we ought to pursue.”
Singh suggested the U.S. should “use the reserves that we have immobilized at the New York Fed, transfer them to Ukraine and allow them to put them up as collateral to raise money.” He ran the White House's Russia sanctions program when he was national security adviser for international economics.
Adams said the KleptoCapture task force is pursuing efforts to sell Russians' yachts and other property, despite the legal difficulties of turning property whose owners' access has been blocked into forfeited assets that the government can take and sell for the benefit of Ukraine.
He stressed that the U.S. will operate under the rule of law. “Part of what that means is that we will not take assets that are not fully, totally forfeited through the judicial procedures and begin confiscating them without a legal basis,” Adams said.
He added that the task force has had “success in working with Congress and working with folks around the executive branch in obtaining authorization to transfer certain forfeited funds to the State Department.”
The Treasury Department said on Thursday that the government is “paving the way” for $5.4 million in seized funds to be sent as foreign assistance to Ukraine.
Additionally, strengthening laws that serve as loopholes for sanctions evaders will also be a priority across federal departments, officials say.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, under Treasury, is expected to roll out rules to address the use of the U.S. real estate market to launder money, including a requirement on disclosing the true ownership of real estate.
Steven Tian, director of research at the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, who tracks companies' disengagement from Russia, said the new real estate rule is long overdue.
“I would point out that it’s not just unique to Russian oligarchs. As you know, the real estate market makes use of shell companies in the United States, period," Tian said.
Erica Hanichak, the government affairs director at the FACT Coalition, a nonprofit that promotes corporate transparency, urged the administration to put the rule forward by late March, when the U.S. co-hosts the second Summit for Democracy with the governments of Costa Rica, Netherlands, South Korea and Zambia.
“We’re viewing this as an opportunity for the United States to demonstrate leadership not only in addressing corrupt practices abroad, but looking to our own backyard and addressing the loopholes in our system that facilitate corruption internationally," she said.
Storms roll eastward after slamming South; 8 deaths reported
A large storm system took aim at the Northeast on Friday, threatening heavy snow and coastal flooding after heavy winds and possible tornadoes damaged homes and buildings, left thousands without power and caused eight deaths in a wide swath of the South and Midwest.
Three people were killed by falling trees in Alabama as severe weather swept through the state. In Mississippi, a woman died inside her SUV after a rotted tree branch struck her vehicle, and in Arkansas a man drowned after he drove into high floodwaters.
Three weather-related deaths were reported in Kentucky on Friday. The deaths happened in three different counties as storms with straight-line winds moved through the state. More than 350,000 customers were without power as of Friday evening.
The storm also barreled Friday afternoon into the Detroit area, quickly covering streets and roads beneath a layer of snow. The weather service said some areas could see blizzard conditions with snowfall approaching 3 inches (8 centimeters) per hour.
Detroit-based DTE Energy reported more than 130,000 customers lost power Friday evening. It was the latest slap after ice storms last week left more than 600,000 homes and businesses without power.
Hail and strong winds were reported in Oklahoma.
The storm system was heading toward New England, where a mix of snow, sleet and rain was expected across the region starting Friday night and lasting into Saturday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue a winter storm warning.
There’s a chance of coastal flooding in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and the storm could bring as much as 18 inches (45 centimeters) of snow to parts of New Hampshire and Maine. The storm will also bring strong winds with gusts of 40 to 50 mph (80 kph), which could cause power outages.
Read more: Heavy snow in Japan leaves 17 dead, dozens injured
Airport officials in Portland, Maine, canceled several flights for Saturday ahead of the weather and some libraries and businesses in the region announced weekend closures. Still, with warmer weather expected to return by the end of the weekend, most New Englanders were taking the storm in stride.
It wasn't the same story in California, where the weather system slammed the state earlier in the week with as much as 10 feet (3 meters) of snow. Some residents in mountains east of Los Angeles will likely remain stranded in their homes for at least another week after the snowfall proved too much to handle for most plows.
Many residents of Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Arkansas and Texas emerged Friday to find their homes and businesses damaged and trees toppled by the reported tornadoes. Tens of thousands were without power and some were also without water.
In Alabama, a 70-year-old man sitting in his truck in Talledega County was killed when a tree fell onto his vehicle. A 43-year-old man in Lauderdale County and a man in Huntsville also were killed by falling trees Friday, local authorities said.
In Texas, winds brought down trees, ripped the roof off a grocery store in Little Elm, north of Dallas, and overturned four 18-wheelers along U.S. Highway 75. Minor injuries were reported, police said.
Winds of nearly 80 mph (130 kph) were recorded near the Fort Worth suburb of Blue Mound. The roof of an apartment building in the suburb of Hurst was blown away, resident Michael Roberts told KDFW-TV.
“The whole building started shaking. ... The whole ceiling is gone,” Roberts said. “It got really crazy.”
Read more: Heavy snowfall kills 3 people in Himalayan Kashmir
Heavy rain was also reported in southern Missouri and northern Arkansas, causing flooding in both states.
In southwest Arkansas, Betty Andrews told KSLA-TV that she and her husband took shelter in the bathroom of their mobile home while a tornado moved through.
“It was very scary. I opened the front door to look out and saw it coming. I grabbed Kevin and went and got into the bathtub,” Andrews said. “We hunkered down, and I said some prayers until it passed.”
They were OK but the home sustained major damage and the couple was temporarily trapped in the bathroom until a neighbor cleared debris from outside the door.
Elsewhere in the Midwest, Minnesota and Wisconsin expected areas of freezing fog with less than a quarter mile of visibility into the weekend, the weather service said. In North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota, highways could get up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of snow and 45 mph (72 kph) wind gusts on Sunday and Monday.
HC orders ACC to probe AL MP Golap’s properties in US
The High Court on Monday ordered the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) to investigate the allegation over purchasing of multiple houses by Awami League MP Abdus Sobhan Mia (Golap) in New York.
The HC bench of Justice Md Nazrul Islam Talukder and Justice Khizir Hayat passed the order after hearing on a writ petition in this regard.
The court asked the ACC to submit the probe report within four months.
The court also issued a rule asking why the inaction of the respondents to investigate the allegation against Golap over purchasing multiple houses in New York and acquiring huge illegal property abroad through abusing power should not be declared illegal.
Barrister Syed Sayedul Haque Suman stood for the writ petition.
Barrister Syed Sayedul filed the writ petition with the HC bench concerned on Sunday seeking investigation into the alleged purchase of nine houses by MP Golap in New York at a cost of 40 lakh dollar.
Chief Election Commissioner, Chairman of Anti-Corruption Commission, Chairman of National Board of Revenue (NBR) and secretary to the Home Ministry were made respondents in the writ petition.
Also Read: HC questions govt’s inaction to free house from AL MP Murshedy’s occupation
A report in this regard was published in a daily newspaper which was attached to the writ.
Recently, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global network of investigative journalism, published a report on its website where it claimed that AL MP Golap purchased a number of houses in New York at a cost of 40 lakh dollar.
According to the report, Golap started to buy homes in New York from 2014 and in five years, he managed to purchase nine houses. The estimated cost of the houses is approximately Tk 42 crore.
Golap was elected AL MP from Madaripur-3 constituency in 2018 and he was made the publicity secretary of the Central Awami League in December last. He was also served as the office secretary of the party.
Facebook ran ads in Moldova for oligarch sanctioned by US
Facebook allowed an exiled Moldovan oligarch with ties to the Kremlin to run ads calling for protests and uprisings against the pro-Western government, even though he and his political party were on U.S. sanctions lists.
The ads featuring politician and convicted fraudster Ilan Shor were ultimately removed by Facebook but not before they were seen millions of times in Moldova, a small nation of about 2.6 million sandwiched between Romania and war-torn Ukraine.
Seeking to exploit anger over inflation and rising fuel prices, the paid posts from Shor's political party targeted the government of pro-Western President Maia Sandu, who earlier this week detailed what she said was a Russian plot to topple her government using external saboteurs.
“Destabilization attempts are a reality and for our institutions, they represent a real challenge,” Sandu said Thursday as she swore in a new government led by pro-Western Prime Minister Dorin Recean, her former defense and security adviser. “We need decisive steps to strengthen the security of the country.”
The ads reveal how Russia and its allies have exploited lapses by social media platforms — like Facebook, many of them operated by U.S. companies — to spread propaganda and disinformation that weaponizes economic and social insecurity in an attempt to undermine governments in Eastern Europe.
Shor's ads have helped fuel angry protests against the government and appear to be aimed at destabilizing Moldova and returning it to Russia's sphere of influence, according to Dorin Frasineau, a foreign policy adviser to former Moldovan Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita, whose resignation led to the formation of the new government on Thursday.
“Even though he is on the U.S. sanctions list, I still see sponsored ads on Facebook,” Frasineau said, saying he had spotted what he believes were fake accounts sharing the posts this week. He said the Moldovan government sought answers from Facebook to no avail. “We have talked with Facebook, but it is very hard because there is no specific person, no contact.”
Rules governing the sanctions list prohibit U.S. companies from engaging in financial transactions with listed individuals and groups. The U.S. Treasury Department, which manages the sanctions program, declined to comment publicly when asked about the ads.
In a statement to The Associated Press, Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, said it removed the posts as soon as it found them.
“When Ilan Shor and the Shor Party were added to the U.S. sanctions list, we took action on their known accounts," a company spokesperson said. “When we identified new associated accounts, we took action on those, as well. We adhere to U.S. sanctions laws and will continue working to detect and enforce against fake accounts and pages that violate our policies.”
Meta, which recently announced deep layoffs, did not respond to questions about the size of its staff in Moldova, or the number of employees who speak Moldova's languages. Like many big tech firms based in the U.S., Meta has sometimes struggled to moderate content in languages other than English.
The ads were identified by researchers at Reset, a London-based nonprofit that researches social media’s impact on democracy, who shared their findings with The Associated Press. Felix Kartte, a senior adviser at Reset, said Meta’s response to disinformation and propaganda in Moldova could have sweeping implications for European security.
“Their platforms continue to be weaponized by the Kremlin and Russian secret services, and because of the company’s inaction, the U.S. and Europe risk losing a key ally in the region,” said Kartte, who is based in Berlin.
Nine different paid posts from the Shor Party ran on Facebook after the U.S. imposed sanctions. Most were removed within a week after the sanctions announcement, though Shor bought another paid post in January, two months after he was sanctioned. All were clearly identifiable by Shor's name.
The posts can be found on Facebook’s online advertisement library, which contains a searchable catalogue.
The library confirms the ads placed by Shor and his party were seen millions of times before they were ultimately removed.
The most recent ad, taken down a month ago, was pulled because it failed to include a disclaimer about the ad's sponsor, according to a notation attached to one of the videos in the library. The library does not mention the sanctions.
The ads weren’t money makers for Meta, generating only about $15,000 in revenue, a pittance for a company that earned $4.65 billion in the last quarter.
Nonetheless, they were effective. One ad, which ran on Facebook for just two days — October 29-30 — was seen more than a million times in Moldova. In the post, which cost Shor’s party less than $100 to upload, the oligarch accuses Sandu’s government of corruption and kleptocracy.
“You and I will have to pull them out of their offices by the ears and throw them out of our country like evil spirits,” Shor tells the audience.
Shor, 35, is an Israeli-born Moldovan oligarch who leads the populist, Russia-friendly Shor Party. Currently living in exile in Israel, Shor is implicated in a $1 billion theft from Moldovan banks in 2014; is accused of bribery to secure his position as chair of a Moldovan bank, and was named in October on a U.S. Treasury Department sanctions list as working for Russian interests.
The U.S. says Shor worked with “corrupt oligarchs and Moscow-based entities to create political unrest in Moldova” and to undermine the country’s bid to join the EU. The sanctions list also names the Shor Party and Shor's wife, a Russian pop star. The U.K. also added Shor to a sanctions list last December.
Last fall, Moldova was rocked by a series of anti-government protests initiated by the Shor Party, which saw thousands take to the streets in the capital, Chisinau, at a time of skyrocketing inflation and an acute energy crisis after Russia reduced gas supplies to Moldova.
Many of the protesters called for early elections and demanded Sandu's resignation.
Around the same time, Moldova’s government filed a request to the country’s Constitutional Court to declare the Shor Party illegal, a case that is ongoing. Moldova’s anti-corruption prosecutors’ office also opened an investigation into the financing of the protests, which prosecutors said involved at least some Russian money.
On Monday, Sandu went public with what she claimed was a plot by Moscow to overthrow the government using external saboteurs, to put the nation “at the disposal of Russia” and to derail it off its course to one day join the EU.
Sandu said the purported Russian plot envisioned attacks on government buildings, hostage-takings and other violent actions by groups of saboteurs. Russia has since strongly denied those claims.
Once part of the Soviet Union, Moldova declared its independence in 1991. In recent years, the country has lurched from one political crisis to another, often caught in limbo between pro-Russian and pro-Western sentiments.
But in 2021, after decades of largely oligarchic power structures and various Russia-friendly leaders, Moldovans elected a pro-Western, pro-European government, which put it on a more distinctly Western-oriented path. In June, Moldova was granted EU candidate status, the same day as Ukraine.
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McGrath reported from Sighisoara, Romania.
US wants stronger relationship with Bangladesh, leaving aside ‘misunderstandings’: Momen
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen today said the United States wants to establish a stronger relationship with Bangladesh, leaving aside the “misunderstandings”.
“They (US) consider Bangladesh to be of importance. They want good relations with us where new possibilities are created,” Momen told reporters in Sylhet, adding that yesterday (February 15, 2023) was a “great day for Bangladesh.”
Referring to important discussions with senior diplomats from India, USA and South Korea, Momen said they all appreciated Bangladesh’s efforts and made a commitment to continue working for deeper relations.
Bangladesh has seen a series of visits by senior US officials in recent months with the last by US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia, Donald Lu, before the arrival of Counselor of the US Department of State, Derek Chollet.
“We had a very good discussion. They came to strengthen relations,” Momen said.
On Wednesday, Chollet said they remain “hopeful” about future relations with Bangladesh – building on the strong partnership that has developed over 51 years.
Read more: ‘Whatever you need, let us know’: Momen tells Turkish counterpart
“We are hopeful for the future. It has been 51 years of a very strong partnership. We are looking forward to the next 51 years and beyond. We have many shared challenges but we have many common opportunities that we have talked about today,” he told reporters after his meeting with Foreign Minister Momen at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The US State Department counselor said that the US places considerable importance on its relationship with Bangladesh, which is growing politically, economically and in terms of security.
Next national polls will be free and fair: PM Hasina tells US official
PM-Chollet, LdNext national polls will be free and fair: PM Hasina tells US official
Eds: Updates with details
Dhaka, Feb 15 (UNB) – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Wednesday said the next parliamentary election will be fair and free as she is committed to democracy and the Election Commission is completely independent.
“The next election will be fair and free. I fought for democracy throughout my life,” she said.
Read More: Clashes, obstruction by ruling party mark BNP’s nationwide march programme
The premier said this when a US delegation, led by Counselor of the US Department of State Derek Chollet, paid a courtesy call on her at the latter’s official residence Ganabhaban.
PM’s Speechwriter Md Nazrul Islam briefed reporters after the meeting.
Hasina said if the people vote for Awami League in the next general election, her party will take the charge of governing the country.
“I never want to come to power through vote-rigging,” she was quoted as saying.
Read More: Govt is preparing to hold a free, fair election: PM
The PM said she always struggled for the people’s rights to food and vote.
She said the first-ever EC’s reconstitution law was passed in parliament and then a neutral Election Commission was constituted on the basis of the law.
She said the EC is completely independent. It has administrative and financial independence, she added.
Bangladesh is due to elect its next parliament by end of this year or first week of January next year.
Read More: Next general election to be held first week of 2024: PM Hasina announces at Cox’s Bazar rally
The last parliamentary election was held on December 30, 2018.
The prime minister said no political parties in the country other than Awami League have bases at the grassroots level. Opposition BNP and Jatiya Party were born in the cantonments, she noted.
She said AL has been in power only for 19 years in the 51-year history of the country’s independence. The anti-Awami League forces were in power for 29 years and there was no democratic polity during their regimes.
Focusing on the development of Bangladesh in different socio-economic indexes, she said the transformation of the country has become visible in the last 14 years during her government. It has been possible due to the continued democratic practice and stability in the country, she added.
Read More: EC to purchase 700mt paper from Karnaphuli Mills ahead of national election
Nazrul said the Russia-Ukraine war and Rohingya issues also came up for the discussion in the meeting.
PM Hasina tells the US delegation that the world should stop this war right now as it has caused high inflation and commodity prices throughout the globe.
“A war never can bring any benefit for the human kind,” she said.
Noting that the USA is the most powerful country, she said it can stop the war anytime. The disputes can be settled through negotiation, she said.
Read more: ‘Bir Nibash’: PM gives away keys to 5000 houses for disadvantaged freedom fighters
About Rohingyas, the PM said the displaced Myanmar nationals have become a big burden for Bangladesh. The local communities in Cox’s Bazar are suffering and they have become minority due to the influx of such a huge number of Myanmar nationals there.
She said the Rohingya peoples are being involved in different criminal activities like drug trafficking, human trafficking, militancy and infightings.
The premier said the displaced Myanmar nationals have been staying in Cox’s Bazar for five years and now it is difficult to keep them there as its natural environment and the livelihood of locals are at stake.
She said her government arranged different facilities, including income generating programmes, to ensure better life of the Rohingya people on Bhashanchar island.
Read More: EVMs to be used partially again in next JS election: EC
She asked the world community to provide their assistance to Rohingya people on Bhashanchar.
Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar and Bhasanchar, she said
PM Hasina also asked the international community to try their best for speedy and amicable repatriation of the Rohingya refugees. to Myanmar, their homeland.
Derek Chollet thanked the prime minister for giving shelter to the Rohingya people on humanitarian ground.
Read More: CEC estimates 15 to 20 percent by-poll voter turnout in 6 JS seats left vacant by BNP
He said they would try their best for the repatriation of the displaced people.
However, the Counselor to the Secretary of State of the United States said the repatriation will be possible when a democratic government returns to power in Myanmar.
He said some recent high-level visits of US officials are reflection of the importance of the bilateral relations between the two countries. This relation will grow further, Chollet added.
He said there are potentials to deepen the bilateral relations, but there are some challenges here.
Read More: EVM purchasing suspended, not cancelled: EC secretary
Chollet arrived here on Tuesday for a 24-hour stay in Bangladesh.
PM’s Private Industry and Investment Adviser Salman Fazlur Rahman, PM’s Principal Secretary M Tofazzel Hossain Miah, Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas were present.
US Counselor Chollet due Tuesday; Rohingya issue likely to get priority
Counselor of the US Department of State Derek Chollet is scheduled to arrive here Tuesday as his country sees "huge potential" in their relationship with Bangladesh and a lot of "room to grow."
During his 24-hour stay, Chollet will meet Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen Wednesday at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs apart from his other engagements in Dhaka.
Chollet serves at the rank of under secretary as a senior policy advisor to the US secretary of state on a wide range of issues and conducts special diplomatic assignments as directed by the secretary.
Bangladesh saw a series of senior US officials visiting it in recent months with the last one by US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asia Donald Lu.
Bangladesh said the visit of the US counselor will help strengthen its relations with the US.
"The purpose of his visit is to strengthen the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and the US," Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Seheli Sabrin told reporters recently.
Sabrin said Chollet will also discuss the Rohingya issue. Bangladesh is hosting over 1.1 million Rohingyas in Cox's Bazar and Bhasan Char.
"It is a remarkable journey – 51 years. We are interested in deepening the ties," said the US counselor ahead of his planned visit.
Talking at the television talk show "Tritiyo Matra" online, the US counselor said he is coming to talk to senior officials and private sectors in Bangladesh to discuss ways to deepen the ongoing cooperation between the two countries.
Read more: US sees huge potential to grow its relations with Bangladesh: Counselor Chollet
Mentioning that the US places democracy and human rights at the heart of their foreign policy, Chollet said Bangladesh is such a good long-standing friend, and they have "very frank exchanges" about the concerns they have.
The issues related to the Rohingya crisis and the overall security in the Indo-Pacific region are likely to get priority during his visit.
"We are deeply concerned about the situation in Myanmar which is only getting worse," said Chollet.
The US wants a solution to the Rohingya crisis, and the solution lies in Myanmar but instability is growing inside Myanmar.
The US counselor said they are doing whatever they can in cooperation with Bangladesh and trying to ease the pressure on the country from the refugee crisis by providing critical assistance to it to support its humanitarian needs, also with efforts to try to bring some of the refugees back to the US.
There are "a whole host of issues" that the two countries can work together, said the US counselor.
US holds drills in South China Sea amid tensions with China
The United States Navy and Marine Corps are holding joint exercises in the South China Sea at a time of heightened tensions with Beijing over the shooting down of a suspected Chinese spy balloon.
The 7th Fleet based in Japan said Sunday that the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group and the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit have been conducting “integrated expeditionary strike force operations” in the South China Sea.
It said exercises involving ships, ground forces and aircraft took place Saturday but gave no details on when the began or whether they had ended.
China claims virtually the entire South China Sea and strongly objects to military activity by other nations in the contested waterway through which $5 trillion in goods are shipped every year.
The U.S. takes no official position on sovereignty in the South China Sea, but maintains that freedom of navigation and overflight must be preserved. Several times a year, it sends ships sailing past fortified Chinese outposts in the Spratly Islands, prompting protests from Beijing.
The U.S. has also been strengthening its defense alliance with the Philippines, which has faced encroachment on islands and fisheries by the Chinese coast guard and nominally civilian but government-backed fleets.
The U.S. military exercises were planned in advance. They come as already tense relations between Washington and Beijing have been exacerbated by a diplomatic row sparked by the balloon, which was shot down last weekend in U.S. airspace off the coast of South Carolina.
The U.S. said the unmanned balloon was equipped to detect and collect intelligence signals, but Beijing insists it was a weather research airship that had accidently blown off course.
The balloon prompted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to abruptly cancel a high-stakes trip to Beijing aimed at easing tensions.
After first issuing a highly rare expression of regret over the balloon, China has toughened its rhetoric, calling the U.S. shootdown an overreaction and a violation of international norms. China's defense minister refused to take a phone call from U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to discuss the matter.
The United States has since blacklisted six Chinese entities it said were linked to Beijing’s aerospace programs as part of its response to the incident. The House of Representatives also voted unanimously to condemn China for a “brazen violation” of U.S. sovereignty and efforts to “deceive the international community through false claims about its intelligence collection campaigns.”
The balloon was part of a large surveillance program that China has been conducting for several years, the Pentagon said. The U.S. says Chinese balloons have flown over dozens of countries across five continents in recent years, and it learned more about the balloon program after closely monitoring the one shot down near South Carolina.
In its news release, the 7th Fleet said the joint operation had “established a powerful presence in the region, which supports peace and stability."
“As a ready response force, we underpin a broad spectrum of missions including landing Marines ashore, humanitarian disaster relief, and deterring potential adversaries through visible and present combat power," the release said.