Peter Haas meets foreign secy Momen

US ambassador in Dhaka Peter Haas has held a meeting with the foreign secretary Masud Bin Momen.

The meeting was held at the state guest house Padma for over one hour beginning at around 11:00am on Thursday.

Sources said Bangladesh ambassador to Washington Mohammad Imran and North America wing director general Masud Ul Alam were present.

The US president adopted the policy – Memorandum on Advancing Worker Empowerment, Rights, and High Labor Standards Globally – on 16 November, in an effort to protect and promote worker rights at home and around the world.

On the day, the US secretary of state and acting secretary Antony Blinken particularly mentioned the imprisonment and harassment of Kalpana Akhtar who works for ensuring rights of garment workers.

The Bangladesh mission in Washington DC formally alerted the government over possible impacts of the United States’ newly adopted labour policy, saying it may target Bangladesh.

Earlier, the US announced the visa policy to ensure democracy, human rights and free, fair and peaceful elections. The policy is being implemented.

About the foreign secretary's meeting with Peter Haas, nothing has been formally disclosed.

However, it assumed that current issues have been discussed. So the politics, labour policy and election might come up for discussion.

Peter Haas returns to Dhaka on Monday after spending a 10-day leave.

Earlier, he left Dhaka in a flight of Sri Lankan airlines on 16 November. It is a common rule that ambassadors and diplomats will leave their workplace and go to their home country or other places. However, the issue of Peter Haas leaving the work station stirred discussion.

Before going on leave, Peter Haas handed over letters of US assistant secretary of state Donald Lu to Awami League, BNP and the Jatiiya Party .

In the letter a call was made to hold unconditional dialogue to hold a free, fair and violence-free election.