HILLARY CLINTON IN DHAKA

BANGLADESH NEWS

aka from Manila at 9:00pm on Saturday.

Bangladesh hopes Hillary's visit will take Dhaka's political, economic and security cooperation with Washington to a new height and clear the clouds that recently shrouded the ties over Nobel Laureate Prof Muhammad Yunus.

Hillary Clinton arrived in Dhaka Saturday afternoon on her first visit to Bangladesh as the US secretary of state.

A special flight carrying Hillary and her entourage from Beijing touched the ground at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport around 4:30pm.

However, the US secretary of state disembarked from the plane after an hour-long meeting with the US embassy officials in Dhaka.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni received her at the VVIP Lounge of the airport around 5:30pm. After Bangladesh, Hillary is due to go to New Delhi on Sunday.

Hillary last toured the country as the First Lady while her husband Bill Clinton was president of the United States of America.

Her visit will coincide with the visit of Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is due to arrive in Dh

During her less-than-24-hour stay, Hillary is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Opposition Leader Khaleda Zia and Dipu Moni.

She is also expected to meet Yunus whose removal as the managing director of Grameen Bank prompted Washington to warn that the government move might affect the bilateral relations unless he was allowed to have a respectable exit from the bank he founded to pull millions of poor rural women out of poverty.

Hillary's visit, which is seen here as a major diplomatic triumph for Sheikh Hasina's government, follows a series of high-level visits by US officials in recent months.

Dhaka has taken unprecedented security measures centring the visit. Hillary is being hosted like a head of state with Special Security Force deployed.

The US secretary of state is leading a 38-member delegation, including 14 media personalities.

Hillary is scheduled to first join the bilateral talks with her Bangladesh counterpart Dipu Moni at 6:00pm at the Prime Minister's Office.

Dhaka is expected to request for duty- and quota-free access of readymade garments, Bangladesh's inclusion in the Millennium Challenge Account, development assistance and economic cooperation, and reiterate the long-standing demand for the deportation of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's condemned killer Rashed Chowdhury from the USA.

The US side will raise the issues of political stalemate, human rights situation, governance and killing of labour leader Aminul Islam at the talks. Besides, it will push for inking the Trade and Investment Cooperation Framework Agreement (Ticfa), engagement and cooperation between the two militaries, strategic collaboration to tackle militancy in South Asia and elsewhere, regional counterterrorism, energy cooperation and security in the Bay of Bengal.

The two countries are expected to strike a joint document styled “Declaration of Bangladesh-US Partnership Cooperation”, which will work as a platform to discuss all bilateral issues and cooperation.

After the meeting, Hillary and Dipu Moni will address a joint press briefing at 7:00pm on the outcome of the talks.

The US secretary will then call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for half-an-hour at her office which will be followed by about an hour's meet with Leader of the Opposition Khaleda Zia at her Gulshan office.

Hillary and Khaleda will discuss different bilateral issues, the country's political stalemate over the mechanism of holding the next general election, human rights situation, disappearances of BNP leaders, including that of Ilias Ali's, repression on the opposition activists etc.

Bangladesh foreign minister will host a dinner in honour of the US secretary.

Hillary is expected to meet the representatives of the civil society and Prof Yunus on Sunday.