PM reaches New York to attend 76th UNGA

Industry Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reached herein USA on Sunday evening to attend the 76th United Nations General Assembly(UNGA).
“A VVIP chartered flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines (BG-1902) carryingthe premier and her entourage members arrived at 5:40pm (local time) onSunday at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York,” PrimeMinister’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told.
Bangladesh Ambassador to USA M Shahidul Islam and Bangladesh PermanentRepresentative to United Nations (UN) Ambassador Rabab Fatima received thePremier at the airport, he said.
Foreign Minister Dr A.K. Abdul Momen, and State Minister for ForeignAffairs Md Shahriar Alam, among others, are accompanying the Prime Minister.
A ceremonial motorcade later escorted Sheikh Hasina to Lotte New YorkPalace where she will be staying during her visit to USA.
After a two-day stopover in Helsinki, the Premier left the Helsinki-VantaaAirport for New York at 4:16 pm (the Finish capital time).
Earlier, on September 17, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reached Helsinki enroute to New York, USA to attend the 76th UNGA.
The Premier and her entourage members departed from the Hazrat ShahjalalInternational Airport (HSIA), Dhaka for Helsinki at 9:23 am on the same day.
En route to New York, Sheikh Hasina made the two-day stopover at Helsinki.
This is her maiden foreign tour after one and a half year since shevisited Italy in February, 2020.
The Prime Minister will stay in New York till September 24 as part of anofficial visit to attend the UNGA and a number of high-level events there.
During her stay in New York, Sheikh Hasina will address the General Debateof the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UNHeadquarters on September 24.
The Prime Minister will present her address in Bangla like the previousyears following the footprint of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu SheikhMujibur Rahman who had delivered his historic speech at the UN in Bangla in1974.
On September 20, Sheikh Hasina will attend a closed-door meeting with agroup of heads of state or government on climate change to be convened byUnited Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Boris Johnson and UN Secretary GeneralAntonio Guterres.
Later, she will plant a tree and dedicate a bench at the UN Gardens inNorth Lawn of the UN Headquarters in honour of Father of the NationBangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on the occasion of his birth centenary.
In the afternoon, the Prime Minister is scheduled to join a virtualprogramme titled “Sustainable Development Solutions Network”.
On September 21, Sheikh Hasina will join the General Debate’s openingsession at the UN Headquarters, while she will also attend the ‘BusinessRoundtable: US-Bangladesh Business Council’ to be organized by BangladeshAmbassador to the USA.
On September 22, the Premier will join a high-level meeting of the GeneralAssembly to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the DurbanDeclaration and Programme of Action.
She will also participate in the ‘White House Global Covid-19 Summit:Ending the Pandemic and Building Back Better’ and is scheduled to deliver aspeech in the event.
In the afternoon on that day, Sheikh Hasina will attend a High Level sideevent on ‘Rohingya crisis: Imperatives for a sustainable solution’ and isexpected to deliver a pre-recorded speech there.
On September 23, the Prime Minister will attend an ‘Event of Leaders’network on ‘Delivering on the UN Common Agenda: Action to Achieve Equalityand Inclusion’ to be organised by Swedish Mission to the UN.
She will also join the Food Systems Summit as part of the decade of actionto achieve the sustainable development goals by 2030 to be convened by the UNSecretary General at the UN Headquarters.
On the sidelines of the UNGA in New York, Sheikh Hasina will holdbilateral meetings with a number of world leaders.
They include Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen, Prime Ministerof Barbados Ms. Mia Amor Mottley Q.C., Prime Minister of the Netherlands MarkRutte, Queen M xima of the Netherlands, President of Maldives Ibrahim MohamedSolih and President of Vietnam Nguyen Xuan Phyc.
Besides, she will hold bilateral talks with UN Secretary General AntonioGuterres and President of EU Council Charles Michel.
The Prime Minister is scheduled to visit Washington D.C. during September25-30 after her participation in the UNGA session and other events in NewYork.
After wrapping up her USA visit, Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to leaveWashington for Dhaka on September 30 and will return home on October 1following a stopover in Helsinki.