How significant has been the Hillary-Dipu Moni meeting?

FE Team | Published: October 16, 2011 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Zaglul Ahmed Chowdhury Undeniably, the meeting between Bangladesh foreign minister Dr. Dipu Moni and her American counterpart Hillary Clinton had evoked enormous interest, particularly in Bangladesh for a variety of reasons. The much-awaited parleys have gone off "pretty well" the other day in Washington and a post-mortem is going on in different circles about the outcome of the talks and what impact these would have on the Bangladesh-US bilateral relations. Bangladesh media is replete with reports and analyses on the issue while there is no dearth of interest in political and diplomatic circles surrounding the subject. Strictly, speaking, such a bilateral meeting should normally be seen as a routine exercise between two sovereign states, regardless of their importance in the international arena. In diplomatic parlance, all United Nations members are equal even if a yawning gap exists, in terms of size and other forms of influence among them. Hence, the foreign minister of any country can have a bilateral meeting with the opposite number of the United States, which is perceived as world's only super power these days .Admittedly, Bangladesh is not supposed to be reckoned with great importance, from the US perspective, but the nation of 160 million people with a strategic significance can not be ignored or sidelined either. The Bangladesh Foreign Minister of the present regime met the US Secretary of State earlier also and that discussion had not generated the kind of the interest, as has been witnessed this time. The reasons for the curiosity of Dipu Moni-Hillary meeting are obvious since a certain degree of misunderstanding appears to have crept into the broader parameter of the bilateral ties surrounding such issue like the "Grameen Bank" and its founder Dr. Mohammad Yunus where the two governments are believed to have taken varying assessment. The matter, in principle, is an internal matter of Bangladesh, but it goes without saying that the "Yunus" episode ruffled many feathers in the United States and elsewhere for the simple reason that "Grameen Bank" is the Nobel prize-winning institution and Dr.Yunus, who also won the Nobel along with the institution, is generally acclaimed abroad. Besides, he is known to be close to especially to former US president Bill Clinton, spouse of Hillary Clinton, and the couple had taken enormous interest in emulating the "Grameen Bank" in their Arkansas state. President Barack Obama is also known to be an admirer of the "Grameen Bank" like many other world leaders. It is in this context, the "Yunus Episode" in Bangladesh, resulting in his ouster from the key position of the bank, has emerged as a matter of consequence in various circles - particularly how would the matter be seen by the US? Evidently, the issue has caused some misunderstanding and Hillary in her talks with the Bangladesh Foreign Minister has stressed on the need for smooth functioning of the "Grameen Bank" while Dr. Dipu Moni has also echoed the same as she too acknowledged this as a Nobel Prize-winning institution for which Bangladesh is rightly proud of. Whether Dr. Yunus personally figured in discussions is not clear from the official version of the talks, but it seems that the meeting may set at rest to some extent of any serious misunderstanding that might have cropped up between Dhaka and Washington centering the matter. The Bangladesh Foreign Minister also got a chance to discuss the issue of extraditing the self-confessed killer of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from the US, brief the US administration on the on-going trial of those charged with crime against humanity and raise the matter of duty-free access of Bangladesh products to the United States. Hopefully, her talks with Hillary on these issues will have some good result for Dhaka. Notably, the US Secretary of State put emphasis on the free media and vibrant non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Bangladesh for strengthening democratic practice and promoting effectively national development. It appears that the US may have some scepticism on both counts and hence is the mentioning of the two issues by Hillary Clinton. She has praised Dhaka's relentless efforts to counter terrorism and its steps to curb the menace. Understandably, the meeting covered other issues as well, which are of common concern. Finally, Bangladesh-US ties did not reach any such stage that it required a headway to break the "stalemate" and there is no strong reason for such a development .It is possible that some issues caused misunderstanding and the Dipu Moni-Hillary talks may help remove such notions. However, the talks were essentially ritualistic in nature, although they did otherwise generate an extra interest in Bangladesh for some justifiable factors. Against this background, it will be somewhat naïve to consider the discussions with much hype. zaglulbss@yahoo.com