PM Hasina leaves for Australia on three-day trip

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has left for Sydney on a three-day official visit to Australia. During her stay there, she will receive the Global Women’s Leadership Award at the 2018 Global Summit of Women, reports UNB. A Thai Airways flight carrying Hasina and her entourage took off from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 1:50pm on Thursday. The prime minister made a two-and-a-half-hour-long stopover in Bangkok, before leaving the Thai capital at 7:30pm local time, reports BSS. The flight is scheduled to reach Sydney International Airport at 7:20am on Friday (local time), where Bangladesh High Commissioner to Australia Mohammad Sufiur Rahman is scheduled to receive Hasina. Among others, Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, State Minister for Women and Children Affairs Meher Afroze Chumki, Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque and a women business delegation were accompanying the prime minister. Hasina will attend the Global Women’s Leadership Award Gala Dinner at International Convention Centre Sydney Friday evening and will receive the Global Women’s Leadership Award there. US-based non-government organization Global Summit of Women is organizing the event between Thursday and Saturday. She is being honoured with this award, a lifetime honour, for her leadership in advancing women education and women entrepreneurs in Bangladesh, Asia and the Asia-Pacific region. At the event, she will deliver a speech highlighting women empowerment, equal rights, bringing women in the mainstream of development, and achievements of her government. On Saturday, the prime minister will hold a meeting with her Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull and attend a community event at Sofitel Hotel in Sydney. She is scheduled to return home on Monday.