Bangladesh Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque is flying to Washington to have political consultation with State Department’s Under Secretary for Political Affairs David Hale.

The meeting is scheduled for Jan 22 at the State Department where the recently-held national election, Rohingya crisis, economic and defence cooperation, and Indo-Pacific Strategy will dominate the discussion, according to officials in Dhaka

Before going to Washington, Secretary Haque will go to Saudi Arabia to attend the OIC Senior Official Meeting. He is expected to have some other bilateral meetings during the visit.

“The new government has been formed and it will reach out to all its important partners including the US,” said a foreign ministry official.

The secretary on Jan 2 had a meeting with US Ambassador Earl Robert Miller and discussed about his visit to Washington, he said.

Hale was appointed last year and there was an attempt to have a meeting after his appointment but it did not happen, he added.

The official said that Washington has already given election reaction in which it said it would work with the government and the opposition.

“We will engage with them on all issues including the human rights,” he said.

Another official said, the biggest US investment goes to energy sector and we want to diversify it.

“We want to offer an economic zone dedicated to US companies which can produce goods here and ship it back to their country or sell it in domestic market,” he said.

Both the countries have robust cooperation in counter-terrorism and we will continue to work on the issue, he said.

About Rohingya, he said, “The US from the very beginning is helping us to resolve the crisis.”

We will seek their support to have a strong UNSC resolution and put pressure on Myanmar to take back Rohingyas, who are taking shelter in Bangladesh to save their lives, he added.

Washington has a vision about Indo-Pacific region and it was shared with Bangladesh, another official said.

The top political leadership is aware of it and we have no objection to the vision, he said.

About defence cooperation, he said, the US has proposed to sign Logistic Service Agreement and it is pending with us.