PM Hasina set for her first foreign trip since pandemic
Sheikh Hasina addressed the UNGA for 17 times and this would be her 18 times joining the UNGA
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to leave Dhaka Friday on a two-week official visit to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York and other engagements with a likely stopover in Helsinki, Finland.
As per her schedule, the prime minister will leave for New York from Helsinki, Finland on 19 September after her stopover there on 17-18 September.
She will stay in New York between 19 and 24 September to attend the UNGA where she is likely to address on 24 September.
Wrapping up her official visit to New York, the prime minister will visit Washington DC where she will stay from 25 to 30 September.
Hasina is scheduled to leave Washington for Dhaka on 30 September and will return home on 1 October after a stopover in Finland.
Asked about the PM's likely stopover in Finland, foreign minister AK Abdul Momen told news agency UNB that they are working on it.
Momen will formally brief the media on the prime minister’s visit at the ministry of foreign affairs at 3:00pm on Thursday.
This is going to be prime minister Hasina’s first overseas visit since the outbreak of the Covid-19 in March 2020.
Earlier, she addressed the UNGA for 17 times and this would be her 18 times joining the UNGA.
The Covid-19 pandemic has proved to be the most challenging period the world has seen since the Second World War, said the UN Secretary-General on Tuesday.
Newly sworn in General Assembly president, Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives, opened the new 76th session, noting that his country’s flag is “flying at the highest peak today”.
He spoke of near-universal “collective anxiety” and hopelessness, not all of which is pandemic-related, saying: “The narrative must change” and that the General Assembly “must play a part in this”.