Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has left Dhaka to attend the 76th United Nations General Assembly in New York.
She took a VVIP chartered flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines and flew to Helsinki at 9.23 on Friday, said her Assistant Press Secretary ABM Sarwar-E-Alam Sarkar.
The prime minister will reach the United States for a two-week visit after a private trip to Helsinki. She will return home on October 1, reports bdnews24.com.
Hasina will stay in New York from September 19-23 to attend the UNGA and other high-profile events. She will deliver a speech at the UNGA on September 24.
She is scheduled to join a high-level meeting on climate change in New York on September 20 at the invitation of her British counterpart Boris Johnson and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Also, she will plant a sapling at the UN Headquarters the same day to mark the birth centenary of Bangladesh’s founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The same day, the prime minister is likely to join a virtual event titled ‘Sustainable Development Solution Network’.
On September 21, Hasina will join the inaugural session of the general debate in the UN Headquarters. She is likely to join the event ‘Business Roundtable: US-Bangladesh Business Council’ that day.
The prime minister is expected to join a high profile meeting marking the 20th anniversary of the ‘Durban Declaration and Programme of Action’ on September 22. She will later address the ‘White House Global COVID-19 Summit: Ending the Pandemic and Building Back Better’.
She is scheduled to join an event on imperatives for a sustainable solution to the Rohingya crisis on the sidelines of the UNGA the same day.
Hasina will attend another event titled ‘UN Common Agenda: Action to Achieve Equality and Inclusion’ on September 23.
She is expected to hold bilateral meetings with Maldives President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Vietnam President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, UN chief Guterres, European Council President Charles Michael and many other leaders in New York.
The prime minister is scheduled to have a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and EU Council President Charles Michel.
About 80 officials and a delegation of businesses will be in her entourage. She will travel to Washington on a personal trip before returning home on October 1.
The prime minister attended the UNGA virtually last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
