The third round of the Bangladesh-US security dialogue will be held on Apr 16 in Dhaka, the foreign ministry has said.
The US confirmed the date when Bangladesh’s foreign secretary M Shahidul Haque met senior state department officials including Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Nisha Desai Biswal in Washington on Tuesday.The security dialogue highlights the robust engagement between the US and Bangladesh as well as “growing defense relationship”.
The inaugural dialogue was held in Dhaka in Apr 2012 while the second one took place in Washington last year in April.
The US state department after the first dialogue said positive and substantial exchanges during the dialogue reflected “the breadth, depth, and strength of the bilateral defense relationship, as well as our shared commitment to peace and prosperity in the region”.
The last dialogue touched on six areas of cooperation –strategic priorities and regional issues, military-military engagement, counter-terrorism, security assistance, peacekeeping and non-proliferation issues.
The State Department said, moving forward, the dialogue would ‘broaden and strengthen’ bilateral cooperation on a wide range of ‘political-military’ issues.
“It will also enhance partnerships in peacekeeping, counterterrorism, and security cooperation, as well as joint military exercises and exchanges,” it said after the last year’s security dialogue. -bdnews24.com
