US secretary of state Blinken phones Bnagladesh FM Momen

Antony J Blinken and AK Abdul Momen

Bangladesh desk: The United States secretary of state Antony J Blinken on Wednesday evening phoned foreign minister AK Abdul Momen primarily for felicitating on the celebrations of the golden jubilee of the independence of Bangladesh and 50 years of bilateral relations between the countries.

The phone call was made by Blinken in the context of on-going tension between the two sides and imposition of sanctions by the United States on Rapid Action Battalion and several senior officers of the elite force recently.

The secretary of state reaffirmed long-standing partnership of the US with Bangladesh on development, economic growth, and security, the US Department of State said in a press release issued on Thursday.

The two ministers discussed the importance of human rights and agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation and address shared global challenges, it said.

Foreign minister Momen said that he requested the US side for reconsidering sanctions imposed on Rapid Action Battalion as the Bangladesh government ‘takes seriously the allegations on human rights abuse and takes action after investigations.’

He also requested the US side not to take unilateral steps without consulting the Bangladesh side on any issue.

The US secretary of state assured for reconsidering the sanctions, Momen said.

‘We have several forums for consultations on various issues in diverse fields of relationship,’ he added.

The US slapped sanctions on the Rapid Action Battalion and several senior officers of the force on December 10.

Charges include gross violation of human rights, including extrajudicial killings, mostly targeting opposition party members, journalists and human rights activists.

The Bangladeshi officials implicated in the US sanctions are former RAB director general Benazir Ahmed, now the inspector general of police, current RAB DG Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun, current RAB additional DG Khan Mohammad Azad and former additional DGs Tofayel Mustafa Sorwar, Mohammad Jahangir Alam and Mohammad Anwar Latif Khan.

US deputy secretary of the treasury Wally Adeyemo stated that the sanctions were used as tools to expose and hold accountable perpetrators of serious human rights abuses, in partnership with the United Kingdom and Canada, to send a message that democracies around the world would act against those who would abuse the state’s power to inflict sufferings and repression.

The visa restrictions slapped by the US on Benazir might make him ineligible for entry into that country and some other countries, including UK and Canada, as these restrictions are linked to foreign operations and related programmes of the US authorities.

The implications of the sanctions imposed on the RAB officials also include the possibility of freezing their property for serious human rights abuse or corruption under the US executive order 13818 of 2017.