Prime Minister Tarique Rahman set out Bangladesh’s position on its interests, sovereignty, climate change, healthcare, the Rohingya crisis and other issues at events during the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, said Mahdi Amin, adviser to the prime minister and spokesperson for his office. The prime minister’s four-day visit to the United States included various UN-centred programmes, at which he represented Bangladesh with a historic speech, high-level meetings and side events, Amin said.
He was speaking at a press briefing on the visit at the Prime Minister’s Office in Tejgaon on Wednesday. During the short visit, the prime minister took part in 30 formal engagements, including formal bilateral meetings or activities with 11 countries, six speeches and one historic address, he said. Members of the delegation took part in about 50 separate meetings over the four days, so Bangladesh was represented at more than 80 bilateral and multilateral meetings in all.
Eight of the prime minister’s 30 engagements were directly related to the UN, notably attending the opening of the General Assembly session and his address to the Assembly, which prioritised Bangladesh’s interests and sovereignty and set out the policies and programmes of the new democratic government, Amin said. The prime minister also attended a breakfast session hosted by the UN Secretary-General, and he and Dr Zubaida Rahman attended an event hosted by the US president.
The prime minister represented Bangladesh at two high-level side events on climate and sea-level rise, the High-Level Meeting on Climate Action and Just Transition and the High-Level Meeting on Sea Level Rise, setting out aspects of Bangladesh’s environment and climate policy and specific proposals, including making the Loss and Damage Fund more effective and joint action by developed and developing countries, Amin said.
At another UN-related event, the prime minister set out Bangladesh’s plans on healthcare, midwifery and reducing maternal deaths, including plans to recruit 100,000 health workers, 80 percent of them women, to bring healthcare closer to people at union, upazila, district and divisional level, and to introduce e-health cards, the adviser said.
The prime minister also set out Bangladesh’s position on the Rohingya crisis at a UN side event attended by representatives of about 20 countries and various international organisations, presenting five specific proposals for the safe, dignified and voluntary repatriation of the Rohingya. Although the core solution lies in Myanmar, the international community needs to work on two fronts at once, Amin said: increasing talks and diplomatic pressure on Myanmar for safe repatriation, while increasing economic support to improve the living conditions of Rohingya in Bangladesh. The international community praised and thanked Bangladesh for sheltering the Rohingya, he said.
Amin described the prime minister’s General Assembly speech as one of the visit’s most important achievements. He said the prime minister set out, on behalf of a government elected by popular vote after a long time, plans for accountability, transparency and improving the lives of women, young people, children and people from all walks of life, along with a “3R” policy to recover, restore and reconstruct the economy and politics. He also outlined social welfare programmes including family cards, farmer cards, health cards and universal cards. The speech also stressed building artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and a start-up ecosystem to meet the challenges of a technology-driven world, Amin said.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report