Foreign Minister: US hinted at restoring GSP facilities on conditions

Foreign Minister Dr Hasan Mahmud on Saturday said that US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu assured him that Washington would return the GSP facilities to Bangladeshi products if the government did some reforms in some areas.

“He spoke with me about how to take the relationship forward in bilateral meetings,” said the minister.

US Assistant Secretary Donald Lu visited Bangladesh on a “positive note” to deepen Dhaka-Washington ties.

At the same time, they have a special fund aimed at overcoming the global economic recession. From there they also said to help Bangladesh, said Hasan Mahmud.

“So our relationship with the US is very good. We are working towards advancing the relationship. This is why BNP's has lost its sense.”

He said this at a discussion meeting organized by the Chittagong City Awami League on the occasion of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's 44th homecoming day at Kazir Deuri International Convention Hall in Chittagong city on Saturday afternoon.

The foreign minister said: “BNP is a fraudulent political party. You can remember, on October 28 last year, BNP produced Joe Biden's fake advisor. When the fake adviser is in the BNP office, he only speaks English. When the police caught him, I saw him speak Bengali fluently.”

He said: "Before that, BNP had forged the signatures of congressmen. At that time, they said that India's Amit Shah made a phone call. Later Amit Shah's office confirmed that there was no phone call from there.

“Seeing the development and progress of the country, BNP and their allies are upset. Sometimes I see that GM also gets upset.”

Hasan Mahmud said: "Before the election, we saw that BNP used to visit different embassies every day. And they bargained to stop the election, but there was not any benefit.”

“The election was held peacefully and 42% people voted. If BNP had not declared election resistance, attacked people, burnt and killed entire families including children in the train, then the voting rate would have been more than 60%. In the last two or three years, elections have been held in many European countries, the voter turnout was less than 40% there,” he said.

He said: "Bangladesh had a free and fair election. If the election was not good, then the government or the head of state of 80 countries of the world would not have congratulated our prime minister.”

Hasan Mahmud said: "If we want to take the country forward today, if we want to realize the dreams of the people of Bangladesh, the only alternative to Sheikh Hasina is Sheikh Hasina, there is no other alternative in this country. She showed the nation a dream of Digital Bangladesh. That dream has come true.”