Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has cancelled her three-day schedule trip to France.
She was supposed to fly to Paris today to attend the Unesco General Conference and a bilateral meeting with French President François Hollande.
But after considering the overall situation, she yesterday decided not to go, said sources.
Around midday yesterday, the Foreign Ministry cancelled its scheduled 3pm press briefing on the PM’s trip.
Hasina also had an unscheduled meeting with French Ambassador to Dhaka Sophie Aubert yesterday afternoon.
After two days of consultation, the Foreign Ministry and other stakeholders explained the situation in Paris to the prime minister.
“The Foreign Ministry has explained to her the ground reality in Paris and the possible options about the trip and in the end, she made her choice,” said a government official.
After the terrorist attacks in Paris on Friday night in which 129 people were killed and over 350 injured, French authorities declared a state of emergency.
“We understood Saturday that the bilateral meeting with the French president would not be possible in this situation as France had declared three-day mourning,” said another government official.
Bangladesh ambassador to France M Shahidul Islam sent at least two reports to the ministry on the situation in Paris and about the visit, he said.
“On Saturday, we thought of going ahead with the visit and expressed our solidarity with French in this grave situation.
“We knew that there would be no bilateral talks and we would have an opportunity to meet the president to express our condolence,” he added.
But, the prime minister had a meeting with the officials after attending Bangladesh Development Forum meeting yesterday and gave her decision, the official said.
Another government official said, Unesco is also not comfortable with the situation.
PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told BSS yesterday that the visit would be rescheduled at a mutually convenient time.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid will represent Bangladesh at the Unesco forum, the press secretary said.
