Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has left Dhaka for London en route to New York to attend the 73rd Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly.
She departed Dhaka airport at 10:20am on Friday on a VVIP flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines, reports BSS.
It is scheduled to land at Heathrow Airport at 3:55pm local time. Nazmul Qaunine, the Bangladeshi high commissioner to the UK, will receive the prime minister at the airport.
After a nearly two-day stopover in London, the prime minister will leave for New York on Sunday morning by a British Airways flight scheduled to reach Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey, at 1:40pm local time.
Bangladesh Ambassador to the USA, Mohammad Ziauddin, and Bangladesh Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN, Masud Bin Momen, will welcome her at the airport.
After the reception at the airport, a ceremonial motorcade will escort the prime minister to the Hotel Grand Hyatt, New York, where she will be staying during her visit to the USA.
The prime minister will address the UNGA on September 27 and hold a meeting with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the same day. She will also hold bilateral meetings with a number of world leaders.
Sheikh Hasina will attend a Welcome Reception to be hosted by US President Donald Trump. The US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, is expected to call on her.
This year’s theme of the general debate is ‘Making the United Nations relevant to all people: Global leadership and shared responsibilities for peaceful, equitable, and sustainable societies’.
Prime Minister Hasina will place some specific proposals at the UNGA in continuation of her previous five-point proposal for resolving the Rohingya crisis, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali told the media on Thursday.
On the first day of her visit to the USA, Sheikh Hasina will attend a reception in the evening hosted by the Bangladesh community in the US at the New York Hilton Hotel, Midtown.
During the UNGA, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will receive two awards.
Mahmood said Inter Press Service (IPS), a global news agency, will give its prestigious ‘International Achievement Award’ to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for her dynamic and farsighted leadership in addressing the Rohingya crisis, while the Global Hope Coalition will present her with their ‘2018 Special Recognition for Outstanding Leadership Award’.
The prime minister will return home on October 1 via London, her press secretary said.