Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to attend the funeral of the late Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey in the UK.
She is scheduled to fly to London on Thursday to attend the funeral, which is scheduled to be held on September 19, a personal aide of the premier told Dhaka Tribune yesterday.
After attending Queen’s state funeral at Westminster Abbey with other heads of state from across the world, Sheikh Hasina will take a flight to the US to attend the UNGA general assembly on September 19, according to a high official of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Queen Elizabeth II, Britain's longest-reigning monarch and the nation's figurehead for seven decades, died at her home in Scotland aged 96 last Thursday.
According to highly placed sources, Sheikh Hasina shared some intimate memories of the late queen during a party meeting at Ganabhaban on Saturday night. The meeting began with a minute’s silence in memory of Queen Elizabeth II.
Sheikh Hasina, also the Awami League president, recalled how she first saw the queen’s motorcade from the roof of her home during the queen’s visit to Dhaka in 1961. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was working for an insurance company at the time, alongside practicing politics.
Sheikh Hasina also shared how the queen referred to her and then-Malaysian Prime Minister Mohd Najib bin Tun Haji Abdul Razak as second-generation prime ministers.
“This is just one example of how knowledgeable Queen Elizabeth II was,” Sheikh Hasina said.
The Bangladesh prime minister also recalled how the late queen asked Sheikh Rehana for her by name when the latter attended the former’s platinum jubilee celebrations.
“I think Hasina is too busy now, the queen had said. Rehana told me I should have gone myself as the queen was looking for me,” Sheikh Hasina told the meeting.
The premier also said the queen gave her and her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy a personal tour of the famous library and balcony of Buckingham Palace on July 27, 2012, after learning that it was Joy’s birthday.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to the United Kingdom and the United States will run from September 15-30. The seventy-seventh session of the UN General Assembly opens on September 13 with the theme, "A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges”.
On September 20, heads of states and governments will explore solutions to outstanding global challenges at the UN General Assembly.
This year's general debate, which runs through to September 26, is expected to be fully in-person.