Former US Ambassador to Bangladesh Dan Mozena has warned against allowing Sheikh Hasina’s continued presence in India to dominate Dhaka’s relations with New Delhi, saying the former prime minister’s political future should not come at the expense of Bangladesh’s national interests.
“I would not be willing to let Sheikh Hasina hijack the foreign policy of Bangladesh toward its most important international partner, India,” Mozena told Daily Waadaa in an exclusive interview.
“The people of Bangladesh come first, not Sheikh Hasina.”
The former diplomat, who served in Dhaka from 2011 to 2014 during Hasina’s government, said her rule had left deep resentment and suffering that could not simply be forgotten.
“A lot of people suffered grievously at the hands of that government. That doesn’t just go away,” he said.
But he argued that Prime Minister Tarique Rahman must look beyond the political grievances surrounding Hasina and concentrate on Bangladesh’s relationship with India.
“The job of a leader is to advance his nation’s interests, and that’s the job that Tarique Rahman has to do,” Mozena said.
That, he said, requires engagement with India on issues that neither country can afford to ignore.
“That means working on border issues, trade issues, water issues, migration issues and global climate change issues,” he said. “Those issues don’t go away, and you need to find a way to engage them.”
His remarks come as Hasina’s continued stay in New Delhi remains a source of friction between the two neighbours following her removal from power in the August 2024 uprising.
Bangladesh has raised concerns about India allowing the former prime minister to remain on its soil and make political statements. Her reported plans to return to Bangladesh have added to the uncertainty.
Mozena acknowledged that her presence in India was affecting bilateral relations.
“Oh yes, it stands to reason that it is,” he said when asked whether Hasina had become an obstacle to relations between Dhaka and New Delhi.
Having spent his entire ambassadorial tenure under her government, he said he understood the grievances left behind.
“All the years I lived in Bangladesh were under the leadership of then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, so I’m fairly well acquainted with her style of governance, and I can understand the damage and hard feelings that she’s left behind.”
Still, he cautioned against allowing those grievances to determine Bangladesh’s foreign policy.
“This is a real big ask of Bangladesh,” he said.
The ambassador Hasina loved to hate
Mozena’s assessment of Hasina comes from an unusually complicated relationship with the former prime minister.
A career American diplomat, he served as US ambassador to Bangladesh from November 2011 to December 2014 under President Barack Obama.
It was not his first posting in the country. He had earlier served as political and economic counsellor at the US Embassy in Dhaka from 1998 to 2001.
His second assignment coincided with one of the most contentious periods in Bangladesh’s recent political history.
Relations between Washington and Hasina’s government were strained over democratic governance, political violence and the January 2014 parliamentary election, which the BNP and its allies boycotted.
Mozena was a visible diplomatic presence during that period, meeting political leaders, engaging civil society and travelling extensively across Bangladesh.
His activities drew criticism from sections of the ruling Awami League, which accused foreign diplomats of interfering in domestic politics.
Yet he also became known for visiting all 64 districts, meeting ordinary Bangladeshis and promoting economic opportunities, particularly in rural communities.
His relationship with Hasina, however, remained difficult.
In the interview, Mozena recalled the contradiction between the former prime minister’s hostility towards him and the cooperation he sometimes received from her administration.
“My own personal experience with her was one of contradictions,” he said.
“You may recall that she hated me, something fierce, and she bragged about hating me.”
But the same leader, he recalled, helped facilitate his travels across Bangladesh.
“At the same time, that very person who hated me so much enabled me to visit all 64 districts of Bangladesh. I don’t understand that.”
He recalled one particularly unusual episode.
“She even sent a family member with me to Gopalganj, who showed me all of the sites important to her family,” he said.
“At the same time, I’m the most hated person of all. I can’t make sense of it.”
Mozena’s career extended well beyond Bangladesh. He served as US ambassador to Angola from 2007 to 2010 and held diplomatic assignments in India, Pakistan and several African countries.
But Bangladesh remained a defining part of his diplomatic career, particularly because of his often uneasy dealings with Hasina’s government.
Those experiences, he suggested, made it difficult to predict her next move.
Asked whether Hasina would return to Bangladesh in December, as she has indicated, or remain in New Delhi, Mozena declined to speculate.
“Honestly, Abu, I don’t have an insight into the thinking of Sheikh Hasina,” he said.
“So you tell me what’s going on inside her mind. I have no idea.”
‘Her time has come and her time has gone’
On Hasina’s political future, however, Mozena was more forthcoming.
Asked whether the former prime minister’s role in Bangladesh politics was over, he initially declined to offer a direct assessment.
“I have no comment on Sheikh Hasina and her role. But there are millions of members, or former members, of the Awami League,” he said.
When Waadaa pressed him specifically about Hasina rather than her party, he offered a more pointed response.
“That’s hard to say. My own thought is that maybe her time has come and her time has gone.”
He did not rule out her continued presence in political debate.
“That’s not to say you won’t hear from her a lot. But in terms of sitting in the big chair, I would guess not.”
His comments drew a distinction between Hasina’s personal political future and that of the Awami League, which governed Bangladesh for more than 15 consecutive years before the 2024 uprising.
But Mozena was unwilling to be drawn into the question of whether India should extradite the former prime minister.
“I don’t have any great insights on what India should or should not do. I don’t engage on that issue,” he said.
Instead, he returned to what he regarded as the central question: how Bangladesh should manage its relationship with its largest neighbour.
“Sheikh Hasina is not the prime minister of anything right now. She’s sitting someplace in Delhi doing her thing, writing lots of stuff,” he said.
“Okay, just fine. Just ignore all that and get on with advancing the interests of Bangladesh.”
