UN Deputy Secretary General pays courtesy call on PM Hasina

UN Deputy Secretary General Amina J. Mohammed on Sunday paid courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the latter’s official residence, Ganabhaban, in the capital.

The meeting had discussion on the worldwide economic crisis created from the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine and put emphasis on collective efforts to overcome it.

Prime minister’s press secretary Ihsanul Karim briefed newspersons after the meeting.

The issues of SDGs, climate change and Rohingya repatriation were also discussed in the meeting, he said.

The prime minister said her government has been taking various timely measures to overcome the international food crisis.

Her government, she continued, has been working to bring all the fallow land under cultivation to ward off the crisis. Sheikh Hasina also put emphasis on rooftop cultivation of food and vegetables.

Her government has been given topmost priority to research in agriculture sector, she added.

The prime minister said they have already developed saline and flood tolerance rice varieties and are working to improve those further.

About Rohingya issue, Sheikh Hasina said Bangladesh has given Rohingyas shelter on humanitarian ground. “But, they (Rohingyas) have become a big burden for us. It has also created social problem,” she added.

Amina J. Mohammed said 52 countries are now on the verge of the food crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia-Ukraine war.

“We have to face the crisis together. It is a big challenge for the developing nations,” she said.

She also praised the contribution of Bangladeshi peacekeepers to maintain world peace.

PM’s ambassador-at-large Mohammad Ziauddin, PM’s principal secretary Md Tofazzel Hossain Miah and permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations Muhammad Abdul Muhith were present in the meeting.