Prime Minister Tarique Rahman is currently in New York, USA, to attend the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly. During his visit, he will participate in an official bilateral meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday, September 24. According to the Prime Minister’s Press Wing, the half-hour meeting will be held from 11:30 am to 12:00 pm local time in New York. This will be the first formal bilateral meeting between the heads of government of the two countries on the 34th floor of the Secretariat Building at the UN Headquarters. The meeting marks a notable diplomatic engagement between Bangladesh and Pakistan at the highest level during the UNGA session.
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will address the UN General Assembly session on the afternoon of September 24, the same day as the bilateral meeting. The session will be held from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm at the General Assembly Hall of the headquarters. The Prime Minister’s speech has been scheduled for 5:30 pm New York time. Tarique Rahman will be the 11th speaker among the 18 speakers scheduled for the session, which begins at 3:00 pm that day. Before the speech, the Prime Minister will deliver a five-minute opening address at a high-level meeting on addressing the existential crisis caused by rising sea levels on Thursday morning. Then, in the afternoon, she will deliver an opening address at another high-level event on integrating midwifery into primary healthcare to reduce preventable maternal and newborn deaths. The Prime Minister’s wife is scheduled to deliver a closing address at the event.
As part of Thursday’s other diplomatic agenda, the Prime Minister will have a brief exchange of greetings and a photo session with the Swedish Foreign Minister at 1:10 pm. She will then meet the UN Secretary-General from 2:15 pm to 2:25 pm. Later, the Head of Government will hold bilateral talks with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul at the UN Bilateral Booth from 2:30 pm to 3 pm. The Press Wing further said that after addressing the General Assembly, the Prime Minister will return from the UN Headquarters to the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh or her accommodation at the Hyatt Grand Central New York hotel. In the evening, she will attend a formal dinner hosted by the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the UN.
The next day, Friday, September 25, the Prime Minister will meet with Wall Street representatives at a breakfast meeting hosted by the company at JP Morgan’s headquarters in Manhattan. After that, at 11 am, she will hold a bilateral meeting with the country’s Crown Prince Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah at the country’s permanent mission in Kuwait. In the afternoon, the Prime Minister will participate in a luncheon with Prince Zayed Al Hussein, President of the International Peace Institute, to exchange views on international geopolitics, global trends and risks. After the luncheon, she is scheduled to pay a courtesy call on leaders and activists of the US BNP at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
After concluding his UN visit, Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will depart for Dhaka via Dubai on an Emirates Airlines flight at 11 pm local time in New York on the same day, September 25. The flight will arrive at Dubai International Airport at 8 pm Dubai time on September 26. Later, the flight is scheduled to depart from Dubai for Dhaka at 2 am on September 27 and land at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 8:40 am Bangladesh time. The visit includes a packed schedule of multilateral engagements, bilateral meetings and side events, with the Prime Minister’s address to the General Assembly on September 24 as the centrepiece. The bilateral meeting with Shehbaz Sharif is particularly significant as the first formal head-of-government meeting between Bangladesh and Pakistan at the UN, and it is expected to cover issues of mutual interest. The Prime Minister’s engagements also include meetings with the Swedish Foreign Minister, the UN Secretary-General, the Thai Prime Minister, the Kuwaiti Crown Prince, Wall Street representatives, and the President of the International Peace Institute, reflecting a broad diplomatic and economic agenda during the UNGA session.
