Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina leaves Dhaka today (Friday) morning for New York to attend the 76th UN General Assembly on a two-week visit with a stopover in Finland in her first foreign tour since pandemic.
Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen briefing media on Thursday said equity in vaccine sharing, climate change, Rohingya crisis and SDGs would get priority in her speech at the UN on September 24.
A 79-member government delegation and a business team will accompany the prime minister at the world’s biggest diplomatic event. A special flight of Bangladesh Biman will leave Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on Friday morning for Helsinki, Finland. She will spend private time there. From Helsinki, she will leave for New York on September 19.
The UN general Assembly began on Tuesday with Secretary-General António Guterres’ message that the COVID-19 pandemic has proved to be the most challenging period the world has seen since the Second World War, deepening inequalities, decimating economies and plunging millions into extreme poverty.
The foreign minister said apart from UN engagements, the prime minister will also meet the Bangladesh community there virtually. She will also hold a press briefing virtually.
With the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the UN chief, the prime minister will attend the high-level meeting on climate change in the lead up to the climate summit in November in Glasgow.
She will also hold meetings with the Presidents of Maldives and Vietnam and the Prime Minister of Barbados.
The Prime Minister will attend a side event on the Rohingya crisis. She will also hold a meeting with the US business community and seek investments in Bangladesh.
“We would seek, as before, announcing vaccine a public good. There should be no discrimination in access to the vaccine,” the foreign minister said at the briefing.
After her official engagements, the Prime Minister will go to Washington DC and stay there from September 25 to 30.
She is scheduled to leave Washington for Dhaka on September 30 and will return home on October 1 after a stopover in Finland.
State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam and Foreign Secretary Masud Bin Momen were, among others, present at the press conference.