In a move that makes abundantly clear the US political and military objectives in Myanmar, three senior State Department officials will reach Dhaka on April 14 to thrash out a future course of action regarding the Rakhine State, where the Arakan Army is poised to undertake an operation to take control of three key townships.
Top Bangladesh government sources said that while the American Charge d’Affaires in Naypidaw, Susan Stevenson, is already in Dhaka, she will be joined by Nicole Ann Chulick, Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, and Andrew R Herrup, Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs will land in Dhaka on April 14.
Sources said the three key State Department officials will be in the Bangladesh capital for a week. They added that they will meet with key Bangladeshi public officials, including interim authority Chief Advisor Mohammad Yunus and Army Chief General Waker-uz-Zaman, who will return home from his ongoing visit to Russia on April 12.
Northeast News had earlier consistently reported that the US objective actually is political in nature and that it is aimed at Myanmar, for which it was key to have in place an interim authority, an unelected body of advisors not accountable to the people of Bangladesh.
Bangladeshi foreign and domestic politics analysts said that the visit of the State Department officials would likely be to set out the contours of the political strategies that the interim authority in Dhaka should pursue in the wider interests of American strategies in Myanmar.
Stevenson previously served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research (2021-2023), Ambassador to the Republic of Equatorial Guinea (2019-2021), and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary in the Bureau of Public Affairs (2016-2019), including serving as Acting Assistant Secretary from January 2017 to February 2018.
While she has held assignments at home, she was the US Consul General in Chiang Mai, Thailand, following assignments in Beijing, Hong Kong, Mexico City and Bangkok.
Herrup became Deputy Assistant Secretary (DAS) in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs in September 2024.
He previously served as the charge d’affaires ad interim in Phnom Penh, Cambodia from May to August 2024. His other overseas assignments include Thailand, Uganda, Vietnam, and Malaysia.
The visit of three State Department officials was preceded by that of US Army Pacific Deputy Commander Lt Gen Joel Vowell who, during his two-day (March 24 and 25) sojourn in Dhaka, met Gen Zaman and Bangladesh’s Director General of Military Operations Brigadier General Alimul Amin when plans for the Bangladesh Army’s assistance and cooperation in the Rakhine State were finalised.
