'False and baseless': Bangladesh FM Momen ridicules report calling him 'pro-Chinese'

Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen dismissed a newspaper article which called him “pro-Chinese” who worked as a lobbyist for a Chinese organisation before becoming a minister in 2018, and called it “false and baseless”.

“This (description of him) is very strange and surprising,” Momen told a press conference, referring to an article published on Sunday in the Kalbela, a Bangla newspaper with a headline titled “US Sanctions is Coming, Government Remains Ready”.

The foreign minister called a press conference to brief the media about Bangladesh Premier Sheikh Hasina’s upcoming Qatar visit.

The article, written as an analysis, claimed that Momen worked as a lobbyist for a Chinese organisation before becoming a minister in 2018.

Refuting the statement, Momen called the article “false and baseless”.

He pointed out that the article could not provide any reference or source to support its claim and said, “I (rather) stayed in the USA and worked there for decades”.

Before joining politics in 2017, Momen served as Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations. He stayed in the US for over three decades, serving as an economics professor at a university in Boston.

Momen became the country’s foreign minister after the 2018 general elections, which installed Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government for the third consecutive term.

Hours after the article was published on Sunday, the Foreign Ministry strongly condemned part of the analysis, stating that the comment about Momen was a ‘blatant lie’ and made with ill intention as it tarnished the Bangladesh government’s image.

Speaking on the report’s claims that the US will impose fresh sanctions on Bangladesh, Momen asserted that there was no reason for it but added that it depended on the country concerned. “We don’t have any idea about new sanctions as it depends on the country concerned (but) it would be unfortunate if any new US sanction is imposed,” he said.

(With inputs from PTI)

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