PM Hasina set to meet Zelensky during Munich visit: Foreign minister

Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud has said talks with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has been listed in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s schedules during her Munich visit in line with the request of the nation in war with Russia.

“The prime minister gave the appointment as Zelensky sought it,” he told newspersons Wednesday as asked whether there was any shift in Dhaka’s foreign policy in reference to Russia-Ukraine war.

He said the scheduled bilateral meeting was expected to discuss matters related to stopping the war as “Bangladesh stand is always clear, Bangladesh’s stance is always against the war”.

Asked for comments on the possible impact on Dhaka-Moscow ties after Sheikh Hasina’s meeting with Zelensky, the foreign minister said it would not affect Bangladesh relations with Russia in anyway.

“It is out of the question … Russia is our very close friend, they had stood beside us during our Liberation War. Our ties are historical and solid,” he said.

Sheikh Hasina will also hold bilateral meetings with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and prime ministers of Denmark and Netherlands Mette Frederiksen and Mark Rutte on the conference sidelines.

The minister’s comments came as he called a press conference to brief the media about the prime minister’s 15 to 19 February Germany visit to join the Munich Security Conference.

The prime minister would leave Dhaka Thursday morning on a commercial flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines on a three-day official visit to attend Munich Security Conference (MSC), a leading global forum for debating international security policy and take diplomatic initiatives to address the world’s most pressing security concerns.

Ahead of the conference, the forum in its 2024 report commented amid growing geopolitical tensions and rising economic uncertainty, many governments were no longer focusing on the absolute benefits of global cooperation and rather were increasingly concerned that they were gaining less than others.

Mahmud said Dhaka would reiterate its call to the international community to resolve the Rohingya crisis through repatriating the forcibly displaced people from Bangladesh to Myanmar.

“Rohingyas have cussed security threat in Bangladesh while the current turmoil inside Myanmar created security threat in this entire region,” he said.

“We are hopeful the upcoming Germany visit of the honourable prime minister will be very successful and fruitful,” Mahmud said.

Sheikh Hasina will also hold bilateral meetings with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Prime Ministers of Denmark and Netherlands Mette Frederiksen and Mark Rutte respectively on the sidelines of the security conference.

He said the Bangladesh prime minister’s talks with the German Chancellor would particularly be more important as they were likely to talk on a number of issues including trade, skill migration and the Rohingya crisis.

Besides, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, UK’s Commonwealth and Development Affairs Secretary of State for Foreign David Cameron, German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze, World Bank Development Policy and Partnership Senior Managing Director Axel Van Trotsenburge and Meta Global affairs president Sir Nick Clegg will pay call on the Bangladesh prime minister.

Sheikh Hasina is scheduled as well to attend a panel discussion titled “From Pocket to Planet: Scaling up Climate Finance” and join a community reception of the Bangladeshi expatriates in Germany at Burgerhaus Garching.

Mahmud said during the conference, being the foreign minister, he would join a panel discussion on ‘Climate Security’ while the foreign secretary is also scheduled to join another panel on ‘Peace Operations’ at the Munich Security Conference.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to return home on 19 February.