PM Hasina’s criticism won’t affect US-Bangladesh ties: Foreign Ministry

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said criticism of the US by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and her ICT Adviser Sajeeb Wazed Joy will have no impact on the bilateral relations between the two countries.

"I don't think so ... because we held a very good meeting and discussed all issues that we had in our agenda," said MoFA spokesperson Seheli Sabrin at the weekly media briefing on Thursday while responding to a question, reports UNB.

She referred to the bilateral meeting between Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington on April 10.

Hours before the meeting, Sheikh Hasina bitterly criticised the US in Parliament saying that the country talks against corruption, but they’ve been advocating for convicted persons in graft charges.

“They want to bring such a government here, scraping democracy, which would have no democratic existence -- (that means) undemocratic trend,” she said, adding that “some local (so-called) intellectuals who live on selling their intellects obey them.”

She said the US has been sheltering Bangabandhu’s convicted killer Rashed Chowdhury ignoring requests from Bangladesh on many occasions for deporting him.

On April 8, Prime Minister's ICT Affairs Advisor Sajeeb Wazed Joy criticised the expulsion of two African-American lawmakers of Tennessee, sparing another one, over their gun control protests, questioning the fairness of democracy in the United States.

"The US State legislature voted to expel two minority lawmakers, while keeping a third who was white. This is the state of democracy in the US. The US State Department is nothing but a bunch of hypocrites," Joy said in a Facebook post.