BD-US ties broadening, deepening: Rivkin

US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs Charles Rivkin on Thursday expressed satisfaction over enhanced Dhaka-Washington relations. Ambassador Charles Rivkin arrived in Dhaka on Wednesday, a day later than scheduled, in his 1st visit after being sworn in on April 15 this year by US Secretary of State John Kerry. He met foreign secretary Md Shahidul Alam at his office in the city yesterday afternoon. According to the foreign ministry, Rivkin said during the meeting ‘all indicators suggest that Bangladesh-US relations are broadening and deepening’. Rivkin is the 1st non-career bilateral ambassador to lead this bureau. According to his office, Kerry brought with him a team of business leaders to help fulfil his mandate that ‘economic policy is foreign policy’. He had an hour-long discussion on Bangladesh-US relations, with an emphasis on economic and business affairs, with the foreign secretary. Rivkin said that Washington considered the just-concluded 3rd Partnership Dialogue between Bangladesh and the US ‘a great success’. The Foreign Secretary briefed him on the Bangladesh’s prevailing political and economic stability ‘which ensured a steady growth and brought confidence in the business’. Rivkin praised Bangladesh’s “sustained substantial growth” and said that the growth should attract US investors to Bangladesh. He acknowledged Bangladesh’s progress in the past one and half years in ensuring workers’ rights and workplace safety, and wished that it would continue, according to bdnews24.com.