Bangladesh FM chairs UN General Assembly debate
New York, Sept. 24 (NsNewsWire) — Bangladeshi Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali has chaired a general debate of the ongoing 71st session of United Nation General Assembly held on Sept. 23 morning.
Ali chaired the proceedings of General Assembly for one and half hours.
As Chair, he welcomed the President of Republic of Yemen, President of Haiti and Prime Minister of Luxembourg and invited them to address the General Assembly. He also thanked the President of the Union of the Comoros for his Statement.
Deputy Secretary General of the United Nations Jan Eliasson was present at the podium with Foreign Minister. Finally, he handed over the Chairmanship to President of the 71st session of UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson of Fiji. It may be noted that Bangladesh has been elected as one of the Vice Presidents of the 71st Session of the General Assembly and is the member of the General Committee of the United Nations.
Earlier, the Foreign Minister started the day with a bilateral meeting with British Minister for Asia Alok Sharma, MP at the sideline of UNGA. The two Ministers discussed a number of issues of common interest during the meeting. They touched upon the issues like investment, regional economic integration, migration and implications of Brexit. The British Minister appreciated Bangladesh for the way the present government is dealing with terrorism and violent extremism in the country.
Foreign Minister Ali stated that the United Kingdom is an important development partner of Bangladesh and there is scope for enhanced British investment in different sectors in Bangladesh especially in infrastructure. He also enquired about the implications of Brexit in the bilateral trade and economic situation with countries like Bangladesh. The British Minister assured that all development partners will be duly informed about their plan to deal with the new situation.
Ali requested the British minister for taking necessary measures for visa simplification with a view to promoting people to people contact between the two countries.
Md. Shahidul Haque, foreign secretary of Bangladesh, among others, accompanied the minister during the meeting.
Source: Foreign Ministry Press Release