UNGA: Hasina to leave for US Friday on her first foreign trip since pandemic

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is scheduled to leave here on Friday on a two-week official visit to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York and other engagements with a likely stopover in Helsinki, Finland.

As per her schedule, the Prime Minister will leave for New York from Helsinki, Finland on September 19 after her stopover there on September 17-18.

She will stay in New York from September 19-24 to attend the UNGA where she is likely to address on September 24.

Wrapping up her official visit to New York, the Prime Minister will visit Washington DC where she will stay from September 25 to 30.

Hasina is scheduled to leave Washington for Dhaka on September 30 and will return home on October 1 after a stopover in Finland. 

Asked about the PM's likely stopover in Finland, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen told UNB that they are working on it.

Dr Momen will formally brief the media on the Prime Minister's visit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at 3m on Thursday.

This is going to be Prime Minister Hasina's first overseas visit since the outbreak of the Covid-19 in March 2020.

Earlier, she addressed the UNGA for 17 times and this would be her 18 times joining the UNGA.

The Covid-19 pandemic has proved to be the most challenging period the world has seen since the Second World War, said the UN Secretary-General on Tuesday.

Newly sworn in General Assembly President, Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives, opened the new 76th session, noting that his country's flag is "flying at the highest peak today".

He spoke of near-universal "collective anxiety" and hopelessness, not all of which is pandemic-related, saying: "The narrative must change" and that the General Assembly "must play a part in this".