Prime Minister Tarique Rahman led 30 major programmes during Bangladesh’s participation in the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, eight of them centred on the UN itself, according to a briefing given in Dhaka on Wednesday.
Mahdi Amin, adviser to the prime minister and spokesperson for the Prime Minister’s Office, told reporters that the prime minister and his entourage took part in roughly 80 bilateral and multilateral engagements across the four-day visit to the United States. Formal bilateral meetings were held with representatives of 11 countries.
The composition of the delegation drew particular attention at the briefing. Thirty-five people travelled with the prime minister, a figure the PMO contrasted with delegations of as many as 292 members sent by previous governments. The group flew on a commercial service rather than chartered or official transport.
On substance, the prime minister’s interventions covered healthcare and the reduction of maternal mortality, a settlement of the Rohingya crisis, and Bangladesh’s ambitions in artificial intelligence, robotics and its startup sector. Four social welfare instruments were presented to international audiences: the Family Card, the Farmer’s Card, the Health Card and the Universal Card.
Rahman also set out what the government calls its Three R policy, built around recovery, restoration and reconstruction, as the frame for its economic and institutional agenda.
Saleh Shibly, press secretary to the prime minister, said the government’s emphasis at the assembly was on qualitative political change rather than the scale of its presence, a point echoed in the decision to keep the travelling party small.
The 81st session brought heads of state and government to New York for the annual general debate, where Bangladesh has traditionally used its slot to press on climate finance and the Rohingya question.
