Bangladesh`s participation in UNGA was successful: PM

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday (October 6) said Bangladesh's active participation in all important meetings in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) would strengthen Bangladesh's position in multilateral forums along with widening the field of international cooperation on issues relating to the country's interests.

"During the UN assembly, Bangladesh actively participated in all important meetings and I hope that this participation would strengthen Bangladesh's position in multilateral forums and widen the field of international cooperation on issues relating to Bangladesh's interests. Overall, I think Bangladesh's participation in this session was very successful," said the premier in a written speech at the outset of a press conference about her just-concluded official visit to the United Kingdom and the United States.

In her speech, Sheikh Hasina touched a number of important issues, including climate change, the Rohingya crisis and the global crisis erupted from the Russia-Ukraine war. She attended a reception at the invitation of US President Joe Biden when she invited the US President and First Lady to visit Bangladesh.

As the members of the Bangladesh delegation to the UN session, the foreign minister, education minister, health and family welfare affairs minister, state minister for foreign affairs, members of Parliament and senior officials participated in various important meetings and bilateral talks.

For over five years, she said Bangladesh has been giving shelter to more than 11 lakh Rohingya people who were forcibly displaced from Myanmar. Bangladesh has given temporary shelter to the persecuted Rohingya population on humanitarian ground, she said.

The prime minister said she participated in a high-level side event organized jointly by Bangladesh along with European Union, the USA, the UK, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Indonesia and Gambia jointly on the Rohingya issues on September 22.

Bangladesh has taken bilateral, trilateral and multilateral initiatives so that the Rohingyas can return to their home of origin with dignity and safely. But, due to the lack of political will of the Myanmar government, the safe repatriation of the Rohingyas has not been possible yet, she added.

The premier said she called upon the United Nations to play an effective and strong role in putting pressure on Myanmar to create a safe environment for return of the Rohingyas in Rakhine State and to execrate the repatriation process of Rohingyas.

Sheikh Hasina said the Prime Minister of Barbados and she jointly chaired a session on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) titled "One Health Global Leaders Group on AMR". She also joined a roundtable arranged by US-Bangladesh Business Council where she invited the US business leaders to invest in Bangladesh's industrial zones, including information technology, renewable energy, shipbuilding, automobiles, pharmaceuticals, medical industry, marine industry, 100 special economic zones and several hi-tech parks._BSS.