For the second time in slightly over two months, Bangladesh National Security Adviser (NSA) Khalilur Rahman on Saturday departed for the United States with a stopover at Doha, Qatar, which is reportedly the centre where most clandestine meetings involving operations in Bangladesh and Myanmar take place.
Documents accessed by Northeast News show that Khalilur Rahman took an early morning Qatar Airways flight (No. QR-639) on Saturday (July 26) to Doha before proceeding to the US.
However, an official order issued by Bangladesh Chief Adviser Mohammad Yunus’ office on July 24 says that this would be “an official visit to the USA from July 26, 2025 to August 03, 2025”. Khalilur Rahman is scheduled to meet “senior US officials” during this leg of the trip. He is expected to return to Dhaka on August 5.
The Bangladeshi NSA last visited Doha on May 26 when he took the same flight (QR-639). Billed as an “official visit”, Khalilur Rahman reportedly met US military and security officials in the Qatar capital and took briefings from them on sensitive issues related to Myanmar in general and the Rakhine State in particular.
A few days before his May visit to Doha, the US Chargé d’Affaires in Dhaka, Tracey Ann Jacobson, was also in the Qatar capital before proceeding to Washington, DC. She returned to Dhaka 20 days later.
While the Bangladeshi NSA found himself at the centre of a controversy over the “humanitarian corridor” issue soon after his May visit to Doha, he had to back off from defending the cause of providing “humanitarian aid” to the Rakhine State in the face of strong opposition from the Army, especially General Waker-uz-Zaman.
Since then, Khalilur Rahman has made no public statements, either on the “humanitarian corridor” or any other issue related to the Rakhine State in general and the Arakan Army in particular. But the controversy over the “humanitarian corridor” issue did not stop him from meeting Myanmar’s ambassador to Bangladesh, U Kyaw Soe Moe, on July 15 in Dhaka.
ALSO READ: Bangladesh NSA Khalilur Rahman avoids attending Army Promotion Board meetings
While Bangladeshi security analysts expressed caution over Khalilur Rahman’s US visit, they said this was “clearly related to the Rakhine State” where any operation to back the Arakan Army can begin once the monsoons subside.
