Staff Correspondent

The US wants to “rebuild the trust” with Bangladesh by ending the “misunderstanding” with the Sheikh Hasina administration over the last general election.

Donald Lu, the US assistant secretary of state for south and central Assian affairs, spoke about the issue in a meeting between delegations of the two countries at a meeting in Dhaka on Tuesday night.

Salman F Rahman, the prime minister’s adviser on private industry and investment, briefed the media after hosting the dinner meeting at his home.

“We want our relationship with them to improve further. They also said the same thing. What he [Lu] said is: ‘We want to rebuild trust. I think this is the most important thing they said,” Salman said.

“We replied that we want the same thing.”

Salman described the tension with the US before and after the election as a “misunderstanding”, but said it was not brought up in the meeting.

“Firstly, they told us that they want to improve the relationship between us in the post-election period. They want to work with us in many sectors. We welcomed their idea and said we also want that,” he said.

“Neither they nor we raised the issue of what we can call a slight misunderstanding between us before the election.”

Asked where the lack of trust was, the prime minister’s adviser said he did not want to ask Lu the question.“But we all know that they had some reservations before and even after the election. But when President Joe Biden wrote to our prime minister, we thought that they accepted the election and our government.

“You noticed that President Biden’s letter was very positive. We started reengaging with them afterwards,”Salman said they did not discuss US visa restrictions over the election. “The visa restrictions have ended. Now the BNP should face the visa curbs,” he said.

The two sides did discuss the withdrawal of sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion or RAB over human rights issues.

“We also asked them to repatriate Bangabandhu’s killer Rashed Chowdhury. They said the matters [sanctions and Rashed’s deportation] were being looked into by their Justice Department.

“They said they [State Department] were pushing the Biden administration on the issues,” Salman said.

He recalled that Lu praised the RAB’s improvements during his previous visits.

“So, we said they should lift the sanctions now. They said the White House also pushed for it, but their Justice Department follows a procedure in such matters. He [Lu] is hopeful that [withdrawal of sanctions] will occur.”

Salman, a business leader, said they discussed Bangladesh’s labour law and policy.

The US’ demands on Bangladesh’s labour policy were slightly different from the International Labor Organization’s.

But now that the demands are aligned, the US is ready to start development cooperation if Bangladesh reaches an agreement with the ILO, Salman said.

“We’ve improved the labour law a lot. I think an agreement with the ILO will be reached,” he said.