Staff Reporter : Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has arrived in New York. A VVIP Chartered Flight (BG-1902) of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the Prime Minister to attend the 76th General Assembly of the United Nations arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York with the Prime Minister and her entourage at 5.30 pm local time on Sunday.
The Prime Minister was welcomed at the airport by Bangladesh Ambassador to the United States M Shahidul Islam and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations and Ambassador Rabab Fatema.
Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen, State Minister for Foreign Affairs. Shahriar Alam, Foreign Secretary Masud bin Momen and PMO Secretary Tofazzal Hossain Mia are accompanying the Prime Minister.
From the airport, the Prime Minister was escorted to Lotte New York Palace in a well-equipped motorcade. While in New York, Sheikh Hasina will stay there.
Meanwhile, leaders and activists of the United States BNP and all its affiliates staged a protest at the John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport over the arrival of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the United States. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the current government chanted various slogans. Leaders and activists of the BNP and its affiliates started chanting slogans against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as ‘dictatorship’ and ‘anti-people’.
The Prime Minister will be in New York from September 19 to 23 as part of his official visit to attend the General Assembly session and a number of high-level events there. She will address the General Assembly on September 24 at the UN headquarters. Following the historic speech of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the United Nations in 1974, the Prime Minister will address Bengla again as in previous years.
On September 20, Sheikh Hasina will attend a closed-door meeting with a small group of heads of state and government on climate change at the invitation of UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. She will later plant a tree and dedicate a bench at the UN Garden on the north lawn of the UN headquarters in his honor on the occasion of the birth centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. In the afternoon, the Prime Minister will attend a virtual event titled ‘Sustainable Development Solutions Network’.
On September 21, Sheikh Hasina will attend the inaugural session of the General Debate at the UN Headquarters. She will also attend the ‘Business Roundtable: US-Bangladesh Business Council’ organized by the Ambassador of Bangladesh to the United States.
On September 22, the Prime Minister will attend a high-level meeting of the General Assembly to mark the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action. She will also attend the White House Global Covid-19 Summit: End the Epidemic and Improve Conditions. In the afternoon, Sheikh Hasina will attend a high-level event titled ‘Rohingya Crisis: What to Do for a Sustainable Solution’.
On September 23, the Prime Minister will attend an event organized by the Swedish Mission to the United Nations Network of Leaders entitled “UN General Program: Steps to Achieve Equality and Inclusion”. She will attend the Food Summit at the UN Headquarters as part of the Decade for Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
Sheikh Hasina will hold bilateral meetings with several world leaders on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. Leaders include the Prime Minister of Denmark, Matt Frederickson, the Prime Minister of Barbados, Miz Mia Amor Motley QC, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, the Queen of the Netherlands, Maxima, the President of the Maldives, Ibrahim Mohammed Solih, and the President of Vietnam, Nguyen Juan Faik.
She will also hold bilateral meetings with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and EU Council President Charles Michel.
After attending the UN General Assembly and other events in New York, the Prime Minister is scheduled to visit Washington DC on September 25-30. After the visit, Sheikh Hasina will leave Washington for Dhaka on September 30 and return home on October 1 after stopping in Helsinki.
BP/SM
