US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton will travel to China,
Bangladesh and India with
modest agenda over bilateral relations with these Asian nations, the State
Department said on Thursday.
While in Beijing
on May 3-4, the top US
envoy and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will join their Chinese
co-chairs, Vice Premier Wang Qishan and State Councilor Dai Bingguo, for the
fourth round of the US-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.
Politics and other factors have reduced
expectations for U.S.
relations with India, where
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will spend three days after a rare
stop in Bangladesh.
Hopes were high after Congress passed a
U.S.-India civilian nuclear agreement in 2008 that the two countries would
forge a close military and strategic partnership.
But Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton's three-day trip to India, starting Sunday after a weekend stop in
Bangladesh, comes amid reduced expectations and political distraction on both
sides and a relationship increasingly marked by incremental movement on a
variety of issues.
The S&ED was created in 2009 to
help both nations manage their bilateral relations and promote communication.
"As with earlier S&EDs, this
year's event will be a 'whole of government' dialogue that brings together
cabinet members and agency heads, as well as other officials and experts, from
agencies across both of our governments," State Department spokeswoman Victoria
Nuland said in a statement.
In addition, Clinton will co-chair with Chinese State
Councilor Liu Yandong the third US-China High-Level Consultation on People-
to-People Exchange (CPE), an event to be held in parallel with the S&ED.
"The CPE aims to enhance and
strengthen ties between the citizens of the United
States and China in the areas of culture,
education, sports, science and technology, and women's issues," Nuland
said.
During her stay in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, the
secretary will meet with senior government officials and civil society
representatives to review "robust" bilateral cooperation across a
range of political, economic and security matters, the spokeswoman said.
In Calcutta,
capital of India's West
Bengal state, Clinton
looks forward to meeting state officials and civil society organization
representatives.
While in India's
capital of New Delhi, she will discuss with
Indian government officials about the upcoming US-India Strategic Dialogue to
be held in Washington
on June 13, Nuland said.
At a private discussion among friends, the
question that we all asked one another was why the US
secretary of state was visiting Bangladesh.
Like the story of the seven blind men looking at the elephant, each one of us
had a view that differed from the other.
So far for such an important visit, the
only one who is upbeat is the US
ambassador who might be knowing something that neither the government nor the
opposition seems to know. It is not that US
secretary of state visits Bangladesh
regularly. In fact, the last visit of a US
Secretary of State to Dhaka was that of George
P Schultz in the era of President Ershad.
The way the Bangladesh
government spurned the request of Hillary Clinton and President Obama for an honorable
exit to Dr Yunus made a lot of people speculate that the US government is very unhappy with the present
government of Bangladesh.
Many have speculated that she is so angry that she has used her influence to
stop the World Bank from funding the Padma
Bridge to get back at the prime
minister and the Bangladesh
government.
The surprise and un-preparedness of the
Bangladesh
government was amply reflected by its reaction or the lack of it to the visit.
Normally for such an important visit, the government should have reacted very
enthusiastically. The reasons are obvious. The US
has the power to turn Bangladesh
into a middle income country quicker than the ruling party expects. It is the
biggest market for our RMG exports that have given Bangladesh a good measure of
economic success already.
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