The issues involving Indo-Pacific policies, elections, Digital Security Act (DSA) and Rohingya came up for discussion in the 9th Bangladesh-US Partnership Dialogue, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) spokesperson said on Thursday.
The meeting, held at the US Department of State in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, also discussed other key bilateral and global issues, the MoFA said.
Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland led their respective delegations.
Mr Momen briefed the US side about the Prime Minister's (PM) visit to Japan and later to Washington DC to celebrate the 50 years of partnership between Bangladesh and the World Bank.
He also shared the outline of Bangladesh's recently released Indo-Pacific outlook. Ms Nuland noted areas of convergence between the two countries' respective Indo-Pacific documents, the ministry said.
The foreign secretary also briefed his US counterpart about various measures taken by the Election Commission to pave way for free and fair elections at both local and national level.
The US side appreciated the Bangladesh PM's commitment on free and fair elections as well as openness to engage international election monitors, according to the MoFA spokesperson.
Mr Momen shared some of the positive developments on Bangladesh's recent human rights performance.
He reiterated the call for lifting sanction on RAB and extraditing Rashed Chowdhury, a self-confessed killer of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Ms Nuland acknowledged the Bangladesh government's announcement to review the DSA by this year.
She also emphasised the importance of continuing progress with the labour sector reforms for attracting enhanced investment from the US.
Both sides expressed satisfaction at the growing and vibrant business cooperation in a number of critical sectors.
They agreed to continue working on cyber security and data protection to enhance business engagements by the US tech giants in Bangladesh.
Ms Nuland appreciated Bangladesh's remarkable generosity in hosting the Rohingyas from Myanmar and assured him of the US continued humanitarian support.
Mr Momen briefed her about the latest funding situation for Rohingya response as well as the renewed pilot scheme for repatriating a limited number of Rohingyas to Myanmar.
Both sides agreed to further scale up the resettlement programme for some of the most vulnerable Rohingyas.
The two sides exchanged their views on the climate change-related issues and discussed areas of cooperation in this regard.
The foreign secretary invited the US under secretary to the 10th round of the partnership dialogue, which will take place in Dhaka next year.
Bangladesh Ambassador to US Muhammad Imran and senior officials from the relevant ministries and Bangladesh Embassy in Washington were present in the meeting.
US Ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas, Ambassador Donald Lu, and senior officials from the US Department of State, White House and USAID were present from the US side.
mirmostafiz@yahoo.com