Vaccine equity, Rohingya crisis on top of Dhaka’s UNGA agenda

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UNB :
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to focus on the issues of equity in vaccine sharing, climate change and the Rohingya crisis at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Sharing the key engagements of the Prime Minister on Thursday, Foreign Minister, Dr AK Abdul Momen said: “Covid-19 vaccines should be a public good without any discrimination.”
State Minister for Foreign Affairs, M Shahriar Alam and Foreign Secretary, Masud Bin Momen were, among others, present at the press conference.
Prime Minister Hasina leaves here on Friday morning on a two-week official visit to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York and other engagements with a stopover in Helsinki, Finland.
Dr Momen said the Prime Minister will address the UNGA on September 24 and she will deliver her speech in person.
He said Bangladesh will host a side event on the Rohingya crisis where many countries are expected to voluntarily join.
Dr Momen said there will be a number of bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the UNGA.
The Prime Minister is scheduled to leave for New York from Helsinki, Finland on September 19 after her stopover there on September 17-18.
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.
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 18th 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”.

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