Bangladesh hires GR firm to deepen Bangladesh-US relations

Bangladesh has hired a US based government relation (GR) firm for a year to further strengthen Dhaka-Washington DC ties, reports BSS.

"We have recently appointed Nelson Mullins to maintain government to government relations ... it's a GR (government relations) firm," state minister for foreign affairs Shahriar Alam told reporters at his office this afternoon.

He said that the government would pay the firm US 20,000 dollars monthly for its service.

"It's a public document and anybody can have access to it," he added.

The government appointed the GR firm amid a diplomatic and media uproar over a recent US sanction on some incumbent and former senior officials of Bangladesh's elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) over allegations of "human right violation".

The junior minister said the government has decided to hire the firm as sometimes it has been difficult for few Bangladeshi diplomats stationed in the Washington DC to engage with the whole US administration which is too wide and multifaceted.

He hoped that the activities of the GR firm would help Dhaka further deepening its ties with Washington DC while the two capitals are being engaged in series of bilateral events this year marking the 50-year bilateral relations between Bangladesh and the US.

The two countries drew a series of engagements in coming months as part of which the US Secretary of State Antony J Blinken invited Bangladesh foreign minister AK Abdul Momen to Washington coinciding with the 50-year anniversary on 4 April.