US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has invited Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen to visit Washington DC to mark the 50th year of bilateral ties.

“This morning, I have been informed about the invitation,” Momen told the BSS.

He said the US Department of State conveyed the invitation to Bangladesh’s Washington mission in a message while Blinken himself expressed his willingness for the in-person meeting during a phone call in December last year.

“At that time he [Blinken] said he would like to meet me in person in Washington DC in spring of this year,” Momen said.

A foreign ministry official familiar with the development in Dhaka said the state department in a message also conveyed Blinken’s willingness to meet his Bangladesh counterpart on April 4 at his office in Washington DC depending on Momen’s convenience.

The then US administration recognised Bangladesh on April 4, 1972, as Dhaka emerged as the free capital of the newborn country after a nine-month Liberation War against Pakistan. 

Foreign ministry officials said Bangladesh embassy in Washington and the US State Department planned a joint celebration at the Bangladesh chancery in the US capital on that day to mark the historic event, expected to be joined as well by Blinken.

The anniversary and invitation came amid a diplomatic and media uproar over a recent US sanction on Rab and seven of its past and current top officials in relation to extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances.