Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will sign the Arms Trade Treaty during her visit to the UN General Assembly.
“The treaty will be open for signing on September 26 and the prime minister will sign it on the first day,” Bangladesh Permanent Representative to the UN AK Abdul Momen told the Dhaka Tribune over telephone on Wednesday.
The UN adopted the treaty in its general assembly in April to regulate international trade in conventional arms – from small arms to battle tanks, combat aircraft and warships.
Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to leave Dhaka for New York on September 22 and return on September 30.
Another official of the foreign ministry said at a meeting held in the first week of this month stakeholders, including the ministries of home, defence, commerce and finance and the Armed Forces Division, had agreed on principle on signing the Arms Trade Treaty.
So far, 83 countries have become signatories to the treaty and of them four have already ratified it.
“If Bangladesh signs it, it would be the first country in South Asia to sign it,” the ministry official said.
According to the UN website, the treaty will prevent human rights abusers and violators of the laws of war from being supplied with arms and will help keep warlords, pirates and gangs from acquiring these deadly tools.
The US, Russia and China – the three major weapon exporting countries – have not yet signed the treaty while the UK, France and Germany signed it but are yet to ratify it.
Twenty-three multilateral disarmament treaties have been adopted since 1978 with the United Nations and Bangladesh is party to all of it except the Arms Trade Treaty.