As tributes and condolences continued to pour in following the death of John McCain, Bangladesh penned a letter marking the special relationship it had with the veteran Senator and former Presidential candidate.
In a letter addressed to the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmud Ali called McCain a “real American hero” and a “tall leader in the public service of the nation”.
Recalling Bangladesh’s special ties with the McCain family, Ali wrote: “Senator McCain’s and his family’s bondage with Bangladesh is very special as his adopted daughter, Bridget McCain, is of Bangladeshi origin. We would remember late Senator McCain with reverence as a great friend of Bangladesh.”
While America knew that Cindy McCain, the late Senator’s wife, travelled to Bangladesh in 1991 and brought the baby from an orphanage run by Mother Teresa in Dhaka, Bridget McCain’s life story was told at the Republican National Convention in 2008 when her father was the presidential candidate.
McCain first got to know of her arrival in 1991 when he met her at the airport in Arizona and asked his wife, “where is she going?”.
“To our house,” Cindy McCain replied.
Narrating the story at the Convention, one of his aides, Wes Gullett, recalled: “I remember John’s face. That day he was not the tough war-hero senator. He was like every other new father, full of love.”
In his condolence letter, the Bangladeshi foreign minister also underlined McCain’s “firm stand against the atrocities on the Rohingyas in Myanmar, and for holding the perpetrators accountable”.
Condolences have poured in from all across the globe and world leaders have called him “an inspiration to millions” and “one of the great political personalities of our time”.
McCain’s outspokenness on the Trump administration’s foreign policy echoed many of the concerns raised in Europe and other countries in the world.
The US media is reporting that McCain had helped plan his own funeral and did not want President Trump to attend his funeral service.
McCain will lie in state in both the Arizona Capitol and the US Capitol on Wednesday and Friday, respectively, before his burial at a private service in Annapolis next Sunday, as per a statement released by his office.
According to US media reports, the late Senator had wanted former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, both of them his political rivals at one stage, to speak at his funeral service at the National Cathedral in Washington DC. This is yet to be confirmed by his office.