Foreign Secretary Asad Alam Siam on Thursday held a meeting with former US ambassador to Bangladesh Peter Haas, who is currently visiting Dhaka.
The meeting took place at the foreign secretary's office in the morning.
Asked about the meeting's agenda, a senior foreign ministry official told Stream on condition of anonymity, "I was not present at the meeting, but as far as I understand, Peter Haas is involved with a company, and he came to the ministry to discuss matters related to it."
Haas arrived in Bangladesh last Saturday on a week-long visit. As part of his trip, he travelled to Cox's Bazar on Wednesday and returned to Dhaka later that night.
During his tenure as US ambassador to Bangladesh and beyond that, Haas frequently found himself at the centre of public attention.
He served as the US Ambassador in Dhaka from March 2022 to April 2024.
He returned to the US on 27 September last year. He later joined the US-based LNG company Excelerate Energy as a strategic advisor.
The Texas-based multinational operates a floating LNG terminal in Maheshkhali.
After joining the company, Haas said, "I am excited to join Excelerate Energy in its mission to deliver innovative LNG solutions that drive economic growth and improve lives around the world".
Because of his role at Excelerate Energy, Peter Haas has to make occasional trips to Bangladesh. On 5 August this year, at the anniversary of the July uprising, rumours swirled that he had held a secret meeting in Cox's Bazar with five top leaders of the National Citizen Party.
However, the local administration later said they had no information confirming Haas's presence in Cox's Bazar that day. The press minister of the Bangladesh embassy in Washington, DC, also shared pictures of Haas being in the US capital on the day in question.
NCP leaders also dismissed the claim, saying they had gone there simply for leisure.
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