PM leaves for New York to attend UNGA

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reached Abu Dhabi yesterday en route to New York to attend the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Hasina would address the UNGA on the afternoon of September 21. On the same day, she would hold a bilateral meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

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A VVIP flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the PM and her entourage landed at Abu Dhabi International Airport in the UAE at 4:40pm (local time), PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told UNB.

Bangladesh Ambassador to the UAE Muhammad Imran received her at the airport.

Earlier, the flight left Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 2:10pm (BST) for Abu Dhabi.

After making a stopover, Hasina would then leave Abu Dhabi for New York in an Etihad Airways flight at 10:15am (local time) today.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Deputy Leader of the House Sayeda Sajeda Chowdhury, Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed, Road Transport and Bridges Minister Obaidul Quader, Chief Whip ASM Firoz, PM's Media Adviser Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, State Minister for Foreign Affairs M Shahriar Alam, and the chiefs of the three services saw the PM off at Dhaka airport.

Bangladesh Ambassador to the USA M Ziauddin and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to UN Masud Bin Momen would receive her at the airport in New York this afternoon.

From the airport, Hasina would go to Hotel Grand Hyatt in New York where she will be staying during her tour.

On September 18, the PM would attend a high-level meeting on UN Reform to be hosted by US President Donald Trump.

The next day, Hasina along with other heads of state and government would join the official lunch to be hosted by UN the secretary-general. The lunch would be followed by a high-level roundtable of the UN Secretary General's High-Level Panel on Women's Economic Empowerment for Leaving No One behind.

She will join the OIC Contact Group meeting on Rohingyas at the UNHQ in the afternoon.

In the evening, Hasina would attend a reception for the Commonwealth heads of state and government to be hosted by British Prime Minister Theresa May and Prime Minister of Malta Dr Joseph Muscat, the current Commonwealth chair-in-Office.

The PM would join a welcome reception of US President Donald Trump in the evening at Palace Hotel at Madison Avenue.

Later, she would attend a reception to be hosted by the Bangladesh community at New York Marriot Marquis.

On September 20, the PM would attend the signing ceremony of the Treaty on Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons at the UNHQ.

Hasina would brief the press on her UN visit in the evening on September 21 at the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh in New York.

She will leave New York for Virginia by road on September 22. After staying in Virginia for a week, the PM would leave for Bangladesh on September 29 and return home on October 2.