Report on US fleet

Foreign ministry issues rejoinder

DHAKA: Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs Saturday issued rejoinder on the report ‘US sent its 7th fleet in Chittagong coast’ published in different newspapers of Bangladesh.

The foreign ministry in its press note said, the ‘Times Now Television news’ is completely groundless and exaggerated.

The news release said the matter is not true. “The foreign secretary of US, Hillary Clinton, in her recent Dhaka visit, did not bring up the 7th fleet issue at the both official and courtesy meetings held with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

On May 31, the Times Now TV report said, US wants to park its seventh fleet in the country--for its strategic interests.

Worried by increasing presence of Chinese naval bases in the South China Sea--America now eyes a counter strategy--as it wants an overall presence in Asia--right from Japan to its Diego Garicia base in the Indian Ocean.

This by parking its seventh fleet in a base in Chittagong giving it both an eye on taking on China and a strategic post in Asia as it pulls out of Afghanistan.

BDST: 2139 HRS, JUN 02, 2012

Edited by:
Kaiser Ahmed, Newsroom Editor
M. Mahbub Alam, Asst Output Editor