PM to Virtually Join 75th UNGA

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will attend the 75th UN General Assembly (UNGA) virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as will other global leaders.

Apart from their virtual participation in other high-level events, the Prime Minister is likely to give her pre-recorded speech on September 26.  

Bangladesh is continuing its efforts to keep the problem of Rohingya on the UN table, an official told UNB.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen will digitally brief the media on Monday on various aspects of the virtual presence of UNGA and Bangladesh, he said.

The 75th session of the UNGA began on September 15 and this year, owing to the current global pandemic, the organization's three quarters of a century of life will be unlike any other.

This month, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, there will be no bumping into leaders or the occasional global celebrity in hectic and often crushed corridors.

There will be no marvelling at seemingly endless presidential motorcades on First Avenue and no “standing-room only” moments in the gilded General Assembly Hall, as the organization’s busiest time of the year is reimagined in the time of COVID-19.

At the center of every new session of the General Assembly is, without a doubt, the General Debate, which begins on 23 September, one week after the official opening.

It is a worldwide unique opportunity for presidents and heads of state (or often their deputy or foreign ministers) to enter the dais and address a world audience on their choice issue.

The UN said this year, due to the pandemic, world leaders will stay away and have been invited to submit pre-recorded videos of their speeches that will be broadcast 'as live' this year.

A representative of each State based in New York, who will be physically present, is required to introduce speeches.