Secretary of State John Kerry said US and Bangladesh intelligence and law enforcement agencies will work more closely together to fight extremists after a spate of attacks on locals and foreigners alike raised concerns the Islamic State is spreading its network here.
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After talks on Syria with Russian and United Nations officials, Kerry planned to depart Geneva later Sunday for meetings with Bangladeshi officials, opposition and civic leaders who are coping with a series of extremist attacks.
Kerry is India to attend the 2nd Indo-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue to be held Tuesday where terrorism emanating from Pakistan and other important issues, including economic matters like visas, will be discussed.
He said, “We would fight with Bangladesh to combat terrorism … we have enough experts in this regard and we could help Bangladesh by giving these experts”.
“But today, Bangladesh is growing in the vision of Bangabandhu – and under the strong leadership of his daughter (Sheikh Hasina)”, Kerry wrote in the visitors’ book after he toured different parts of the Bangabandhu’s residence, now turned into a museum.
The PM’s press secretary quoted Kerry as telling Hasina that the Islamic State (IS) has been cornered in Syria and its foreign fighters (non-Syrians) are returning to their countries.
“So I’m confident that our assistance to Bangladesh will increasingly be created to help the government address terrorism threats from domestic and trans-national organisations”, Kerry said.
Kerry comes to India after his first visit to Bangladesh, two months after a deadly terrorist attack shook the nation, and was to meet foreign minister Sushma Swaraj on arrival. Senior traffic police officials said Mr Kerry’s cavalcade was not stuck in traffic, but had only slowed down at a certain, single point.
“Bangladesh can not truly meet the aspirations of its people and share prosperity if its workers are not safe and their rights are not ensured”, he added. “The current S&CD would be reviewing the progress made so far in strengthening the agreed upon issues and lay down the road map for the ensuing year, under the two tracks”, a commerce ministry statement said.
The official said Kerry would speak to Bangladeshi leaders to see what more the USA can do to bolster that relationship.
A series of police raids on suspected militant hideouts have killed at least 26 extremists since the cafe attack.
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Kerry said “there is much we can do to cooperate” in the fields of intelligence and law enforcement to address security threats from both domestic and trans-national organizations.
