Dhaka, Oct 22 (UNB) - Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla made a courtesy call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at her office on Monday morning.

During the meeting, they discussed matters of mutual interest, said PM's Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim while briefing reporters after the meeting.

Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office Md Nojibur Rahman and PMO Secretary Sajjadul Hassan were present at the meeting.

Dhaka, Oct 21 (UNB) – US Ambassador in Dhaka Marcia Bernicat has received the US Secretary's ‘Distinguished Service Award’, the highest honor award by the US Department of State.

“Congratulations Ambassador Bernicat on this well-deserved award,” US Embassy shared a post on its official Facebook page on Sunday. 

She was honored with the award in recognition of her exceptionally outstanding leadership and dedication in the field of foreign affairs.

Visiting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Alice Wells presented the award to Ambassador Bernicat who will soon complete her tenure here.

The US Senate has already confirmed the appointment of Earl R Miller as the next US Ambassador to Bangladesh.

The ambassador-designate must still be officially sworn in before arriving in Dhaka to present his credentials to President Md Abdul Hamid, according to a post by the official Facebook page of the US Embassy, Dhaka.

Miller, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, currently serves as the US ambassador to Botswana- a position he has held since 2014.

Dhaka, Oct 21 (UNB) – Visiting US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs Alice Wells had a meeting with Foreign Secretary M Shahidul Haque on Sunday. They discussed bilateral, regional and global pressing issues including Rohingya one.

During the meeting held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they also had a brief discussion on political affairs including upcoming elections, said a diplomatic source.

They discussed strengthening the Bangladesh-US partnership and collaboration on building a prosperous, secure, and interconnected Indo-Pacific region.

She reached Cox’s Bazar in the afternoon to visit Rohingya camps in the district that are sheltering nearly one million Rohingya, most of whom fled Myanmar in the wake of ethnic cleansing perpetrated by the Burmese military in Rakhine State, and see the current situation there.

After visiting camps in Cox’s Bazar on Monday the US official, now on a four-day visit to Bangladesh, will return to Dhaka and brief media in a city hotel in the evening.

She will meet officials from UN organizations, NGOs, and local government to discuss their efforts to ensure assistance reaches the affected populations.

The US official expressed appreciation for Bangladesh’s continued generosity in responding to the Rohingya crisis.

Dhaka, Oct 21 (UNB) - Bangladesh, being one of the most vulnerable counties to the adverse impact of climate change, finds strong attachment with the core values of the newly formed global alliance of P4G (Partnering for Green Growth a Global Goals 2030).

Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said this during the high-level dialogue of the 1st P4G Summit held in Copenhagen on October 19-20 and mentioned that Copenhagen P4G Summit opened a new horizon for green growth in Bangladesh.

The Summit- inaugurated by the Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rusmussen and attended by,  among others, Heads of State, Governments from Republic of Korea, Vietnam, Ethiopia, the Netherlands and Ministers from China, Japan and other countries, CEOs, academicians, international organizations, entrepreneurs, has already been marked as ground breaking summit to contributing momentum in attaining the Sustainable Development Goals as enshrined in 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to address the commitment made in Paris  Climate Agreement. 

Foreign Minister Mahmood Ali led a 13-strong Bangladesh delegation, both from public and private sector to the Summit, said the foreign ministry here on Sunday.

The Foreign Minister mentioned that P4G would promote new and innovative business opportunities, including transfer if technology between the partner countries. 

Meanwhile a bilateral meeting between Bangladesh Foreign Minister and the Danish counterpart Anders Samuelsen was held on the side-line of the summit where entire gamut of bilateral relations including Rohingya issue has been discussed. 

Later, in presence of Danish media, both the Foreign Ministers put ink on a framework G2G MoU in relation to Danish support to the dairy sector in Bangladesh on a platform for Public Private Participation. 

Another B2B MOU was signed between Milk Vita Bangladesh and Danish dairy giant Arla Foods to promote collaboration to achieve sustainability in the dairy sector of Bangladesh through business sector.

Senior Secretary of Rural Development and Cooperatives S. M. Ghulam Farooque, Ambassador of Bangladesh to Denmark Muhammad A Muhith, Director General, West Europe and EU of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Khorshed Alam  Khastagir, Managing Director, Milk vita Mohammad Atahr Ali were also present during the MoU signing ceremony. 
 

Dhaka, Oct 21 (UNB) - Bangladesh has said a global response is essential to protect the rights and dignity of the migrants and maximise the development potential of this process.  

“Since it is not possible for a single country to deal with international migration in isolation,” said Bangladesh’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Masud Bin Momen.

He was addressing at the Plenary of the second committee of the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly on ‘Globalization and Interdependence’ at the UN headquarters recently. 

The Ambassador said Bangladesh realised the importance of addressing this global policy vacuum early on and called for formulating a separate global compact for migration (GCM) in early 2016, said the Bangladesh Mission on Sunday. 

“Bangladesh is one of the largest countries of origin in national wealth creation and development, the role of remittance has been immense,” he said.

Ambassador Momen said migration has been embedded in national development policy to pave Bangladesh’s journey to become a Middle-Income Country by 2021 and a Developed Country by 2041. 

On the occasion of the International Migrants Day Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said, “The Global Community must work together and in coordination to implement the rules and measures for countering human trafficking and lowering the recruitment costs for labor migration to a tolerable level.” 

He said proposed mechanism for capacity building and launching the UN Network for Migration are two realistic measures that could scale up the efforts by the member states to make migration safe, orderly and regular. 

“We will also need to build on it for continuous improvement in global migration governance and management. My delegation will remain constructively engaged,” he said.

Ambassador Momen said there is a realisation across the world, belated though, to integrate migration into national development policies. 

“It is also important to put an end to the fragmented approach of the United Nations towards migration. With the adoption of the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, migration rightly reappeared in the UN Agenda as an issue of major relevance and importance,” he said.