Embassy of the United States, Dhaka | |
---|---|
Location | Dhaka |
Address | 12 Madani Avenue, Baridhara |
Coordinates | 23°47′48″N90°25′20″E / 23.7967°N 90.4223°E |
Ambassador | Tracey Ann Jacobson (Chargé d'Affairs ad interim) |
Website | bd |
The Embassy of the United States of America in Dhaka is the diplomatic mission of the United States in Bangladesh. It is located in Baridhara. The embassy has 400 staff led by the US Ambassador to Bangladesh.
The United States established its consulate-general in Dacca in 1949, when the city was the capital of East Bengal in the Dominion of Pakistan.
During the independence of Bangladesh, it was the site of the famous Blood Telegram sent by then-Consul-general Archer Blood detailing atrocities committed by the Pakistani Army during Operation Searchlight.
The United States recognized the independence of Bangladesh on 4 April 1972. [1] [2] Herbert D. Spivack was the principal American diplomatic officer in Dhaka at the time. [3] Four days later, the United States and Bangladesh agreed to establish diplomatic relations at the embassy level. [4] The consulate-general was officially upgraded to an embassy on 18 May 1972. [5] [6]
The present embassy buildings opened in 1989.
As part of the Foundation for Art and Preservation in Embassies, artwork by Tara Andris, Nasreen Haroon, Bernadette Jiyong Frank, Allison Joyce, Mira Lehr, Stuart Peterman, Jody Rasch, Lawrence Schiller, and Michael Enn Sirvet has been included in the Embassy as of June 2020. [7]
The US Embassy [8] complex is inspired by Mughal Bengali architecture. The exterior surface walls are composed of terracotta brick tiles. A lawn filled with palm trees and a moat surrounds the main building. The complex is sometimes nicknamed as the "Red Fort". It was designed by the Boston architectural firm of Kallmann, McKinnell and Wood. An earlier 1974 office building was designed by Robert Marquis. [9]
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes an embassy or high commission, which is the main office of a country's diplomatic representatives to another country; it is usually, but not necessarily, based in the receiving state's capital city. Consulates, on the other hand, are smaller diplomatic missions that are normally located in major cities of the receiving state. As well as being a diplomatic mission to the country in which it is situated, an embassy may also be a nonresident permanent mission to one or more other countries.
The foreign relations of Bangladesh are Bangladesh's relationships with foreign countries. The Government of Bangladesh's policies pursue a moderate foreign policy that heavily relies on multilateral diplomacy, especially at the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Since its independence in 1971, Bangladesh has stressed its principle of "Friendship towards all, malice towards none" in dictating its diplomacy. As a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, Bangladesh has tended to not take sides with major powers. Since the end of the Cold War, Bangladesh has pursued better relations with its neighbours and other nearby states.
Dhaka Division is an administrative division of Bangladesh. Dhaka serves as the capital city of the Dhaka Division, the Dhaka District and Bangladesh. The division remains a population magnet, covers an area of 20,508.8 km2 with a population in excess of 44 million, it is one of the fastest growing populous administrative division of the world, growing at 1.94% rate since prior count, compared with national average of 1.22%. However, national figures may include data skewing expatriation of male labor force as gender ratio is skewed towards females.
The Bangladesh Liberation War, also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence and known as the Liberation War in Bangladesh, was an armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalist and self-determination movement in East Pakistan, which resulted in the independence of Bangladesh. The war began when the Pakistani military junta based in West Pakistan—under the orders of Yahya Khan—launched Operation Searchlight against East Pakistanis on the night of 25 March 1971, initiating the Bangladesh genocide.
Archer Kent Blood was an American career diplomat and academic. He served as the last American Consul General to Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is famous for sending the strongly worded "Blood Telegram" protesting against the atrocities committed in the Bangladesh Liberation War. He also served in Greece, Algeria, Germany, Afghanistan and ended his career as chargé d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India, retiring in 1982.
The Bangladesh genocide was the ethnic cleansing of Bengalis, especially Bengali Hindus, residing in East Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War, perpetrated by the Pakistan Armed Forces and the Razakars. It began on 25 March 1971, as Operation Searchlight was launched by West Pakistan to militarily subdue the Bengali population of East Pakistan; the Bengalis comprised the demographic majority and had been calling for independence from the Pakistani state. Seeking to curtail the Bengali self-determination movement, erstwhile Pakistani president Yahya Khan approved a large-scale military deployment, and in the nine-month-long conflict that ensued, Pakistani soldiers and local pro-Pakistan militias killed between 300,000 and 3,000,000 Bengalis and raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women in a systematic campaign of mass murder and genocidal sexual violence. In their investigation of the genocide, the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists concluded that Pakistan's campaign involved the attempt to exterminate or forcibly remove a significant portion of the country's Hindu populace. West Pakistanis in particular were shown by the news that the operation was carried out because of the 'rebellion by the East Pakistanis' and many activities at the time were hidden from them, including rape and ethnic cleansing of East Pakistanis by the Pakistani military.
Gulshan is a thana situated in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is an affluent residential and business neighbourhood and is now home to a number of the city's restaurants, five star hotels, shopping centers, schools, banks, offices and members' clubs; it also hosts the majority of embassies and high commissions in Bangladesh. Many Bangladeshi and international companies have their offices in Gulshan.
Bangladesh-United States relations are the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and the United States of America. For the United States, Bangladesh is the 38th largest goods supplier and 60th largest export market. For Bangladesh, the United States is the largest export market. The two countries signed a bilateral investment treaty in 1986. U.S. companies are the largest foreign investors in Bangladesh. The U.S. government is the leading contributor of humanitarian assistance in response to the Rohingya crisis. Both nations have announced similar views for a Free and Open Indo-Pacific.
Bangladesh–Russia relations are the foreign relations between Bangladesh and Russia. Bangladesh has an embassy in Moscow and Russia has one in Dhaka and a consulate-general in Chittagong. Diplomatic relations between the USSR and Bangladesh were established on January 25, 1972. These relations have continued with Russia being the successor state to the Soviet Union.
1971 Dhaka University massacre was the mass murder of students and faculty at the University of Dhaka in East Pakistan by the Pakistan Army, at the beginning of what would become the Bangladesh War of Independence. In March 1971, the Pakistan Army Eastern Wing Commander Tikka Khan launched Operation Searchlight on the orders of Yahya Khan to crush the Bengali nationalist movement. As part of the operation, the army launched an assault on the university campus. It is the deadliest attack on a university in history.
The Embassy of Japan in Dhaka is the diplomatic mission of Japan in Bangladesh. Naoki Ito is the current ambassador of Japan in Bangladesh who was appointed on October in 2019.
Bangladesh–Netherlands relations refer to the bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Netherlands.
Herbert Daniel Spivack was a career American diplomat who served in Iran, Burma, Cambodia, and Bangladesh.