Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will not attend the upcoming United Nations General Assembly starting September 17 because of her “busy schedule” due to parliament session, her party’s election campaigns and meetings with the grassroots, a senior foreign ministry official confirmed the Dhaka Tribune.
A minister Monday told the Dhaka Tribune that Hasina had conveyed her unwillingness to attend the 68th UNGA at a cabinet meeting while talking about the upcoming parliament session beginning on September 12.
At Monday’s cabinet meeting, a senior minister had raised the issue of the PM’s absence from the upcoming parliament session, although a brief one, expressing concerns regarding passage of several laws, a source said.
Responding to the minister’s concern, Sheikh Hasina told her cabinet colleagues that she would not join the UNGA as she would be busy with the party’s electioneering and meetings with the grassroots.
Hasina, the ruling Awami League president, started a series of meetings with her party’s district-level leaders on September 4 to listen to their opinions on party candidates for the upcoming parliamentary polls. The meetings will continue up to October 12.
However, according to the PM’s schedule, there is no meeting with the grassroots between September 21 and October 4. She was scheduled to leave Bangladesh for the USA on September 22 and return on October 2.
“If I go to the USA, many tasks of the party will remain unfinished before the election,” a minister quoted Hasina as saying. The UN General Assembly is expected begin on September 17 and end on October 2. Sheikh Hasina is supposed to deliver her speech at the UNGA on September 27.
As the PM has decided not attend the UN session, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni will now represent Bangladesh there, foreign ministry officials said.
However, sources at the Prime Minister’s Office told the Dhaka Tribune that it was considering the scope for Hasina to attend the UNGA only to deliver her speech and then return home.
They said the PM had instructed the PMO last week to cut the size of her UN entourage. Earlier at a meeting with Bangladesh Ambassador in Washington Akramul Qader on July 25, United States Trade Representative Ambassador Michael B Froman said Ticfa was likely to be signed in September either in Washington or in Dhaka.
The next day Commercial Counsellor Md Shafiqul Islam of Bangladesh Embassy in Washington informed Commerce Secretary Mahbub Ahmed about Froman’s meeting through email, explaining that the Ticfa signing ceremony could take place either during the secretary of state’s visit to Dhaka or Hasina’s bilateral visit to Washington DC in September.
