US expects Bangladesh to maintain security of foreign missions, diplomats

The US State Department expects that the Bangladesh government will take all necessary actions to maintain the safety and security of all foreign missions and personnel in the country.

US State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller said this in response to a question regarding a recent interview of US ambassador in Dhaka Peter Haas expressing concern over security and safety of foreign missions and diplomats in Bangladesh.

Mathew Miller said, “So I’m not going to discuss specific details around security at the U.S. embassy or the personnel that work there. I will say that of course the safety and security of our diplomatic personnel is of the utmost importance to us. And per the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, every host country must uphold its obligations to ensure the protection of all diplomatic mission premises and take all diplomatic steps to prevent any attack on personnel.”

The state department spokesperson further said, “The United States values its relationship with Bangladesh, and we expect that the government will take all necessary actions to maintain the safety and security of all foreign missions and personnel in the country, including ours.”

In response to another question regarding the possibility of imposing visa restriction on media personalities in Bangladesh, Miller said, “I’m not going to announce specific steps, preview steps that we might take from the podium. We have taken steps to impose restrictions under the Secretary’s authority against members of law enforcement, the ruling party, and the political opposition who we believe to be responsible for or complicit in undermining free and fair elections in Bangladesh.”

“And as we made clear when we announced this policy on May 24th – that’s when we announced the policy, not the imposition of sanctions on specific individuals – but when we announced that policy, that it could be applied to any Bangladeshi individual who we believe was responsible for or complicit in undermining the democratic process. So we retain the option to impose sanctions on other individuals if and when we believe it’s appropriate,” he added.