Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will apprise the heads of government of the Commonwealth countries of the latest scenario of the Rohingya crisis in the upcoming summit.
The Commonwealth summit is scheduled for April 19-20 in London.
The Prime Minister leaves home for Dammam, Saudi Arabia Sunday to attend the concluding ceremony of a military drill and from Dammam, she is expected to start for London on Monday. She will return home on April 23.
Foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali disclosed this while addressing a press conference at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday.
With the pre-summit meetings going on, the Commonwealth stressed the need for sustainable return of the Rohingyas to their homeland in Myanmar and for ensuring the accountability of those who had committed atrocities against the stateless people.
Mr Ali said there was a possibility of a meeting between Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the summit but the schedule was not finalised yet.
The Prime Minister will be the main speaker at a seminar on Educate to Empower, which will be organised by the Commonwealth Women Forum as a pre-summit event.
Besides, the prime minister will deliver the keynote speech at a seminar organised by the British think-tank Overseas Development Institute. She will dwell on the policy narratives of Bangladesh's recent development initiatives and advancements, the minister added.
Talking about the Saudi visit of the PM, Mr Ali said that Sheikh Hasina will attend the concluding ceremony of a military drill dubbed 'Gulf Shield-1' at the invitation of Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz.
A total of 23 countries are taking part in the exercise. An 18-member team of the Bangladesh army is representing the country in the month-long exercise, which began on March 23.
Pakistan is the leading contributor to Joint Gulf Shield-1, both in terms of personnel and assets.
According to Saudi government statement, Gulf Shield 1 Drills, held with the participation of 24 "friendly and brotherly" countries in addition to Saudi troops from all military sectors, aims to raise the competencies of participating forces to confront the challenges and threats within a joint-operation environment to achieve the concept of joint-action.
The participants in the exercises include military forces of high-level of training and professionalism, using many modern and sophisticated weapons.
Responding to a question, the foreign minister made it clear that Bangladesh will send troops to back Saudi Arabia only when the two holy mosques of the Muslim Ummah-Masjid al Haram in Mecca and Masjid e-Nabawi in Medina -will come under any threat.
He said that since this drill has nothing to do with the Saudi-led military alliance and it is an informal grouping.
mirmostafiz@yahoo.com