A Correspondent:
New York: A bilateral meeting between Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser of the interim government Profes-sor Dr. Muhammad Yunus and US President Joseph R Biden was scheduled to held last night (BST) (Tuesday, September 24 US time) on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
The meeting was scheduled at 11 am (New York time), which the first meeting of the Bangladesh inter-im government chief with the US President.
“On September 24, the Bangladesh government chief and the US president will hold the meeting at 11 am (local time) at the UN headquarters in New York,” councilor of Bangladesh Permanent Mission to the UN Fahmid Farhan told.
Diplomats said the meeting of Chief Adviser Prof Yunus and US President Biden indicates that the US administration wants to enhance diplomatic and economic relations with the Prof Yunus-led Bangladesh’s interim government.
Through the talks, the US administration is sending a clear message to Bangladesh that they are keen to boost bilateral ties, they said.
Diplomatic sources said during the high level talks between Joe Biden and Prof Yunus, the two leaders will discuss in detail how diplomatic and economic relations could be enhanced in writing a new chapter in bilateral relations between Bangladesh and the United States.
They will also discuss the US support in implementing the reform agendas taken by the Bangladesh in-terim government.
Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain said that he believes the Nobel Peace Laureate and a world-renowned personality like Prof Muhammad Yunus would play a positive role in leading the Bangladesh delegation and speaking for Bangladesh in the UN session.
So, he said, this session is very significant for Bangladesh.
A diplomat at the Bangladesh Permanent Mission to of the United Nations said once the US President gives a speech at the UNGA session, he hosts a reception in the afternoon of that day in honour of the heads of state and government joining the session.
Holding a bilateral meeting between the US President and the top leader of any country during the UN-GA session is very rare, he said.
So far, the US President did not hold any meeting with any top leader of Bangladesh on the sidelines of the UNGA session, while the US president have always met and talked to the heads of state and govern-ment of Bangladesh at the reception hosted by the US President.
Besides, there was no meeting between the heads of Bangladesh government and the US top leader at the UN General Session.
About significance of the Biden-Yunus talks, the Bangladeshi diplomat said a US high-level delegation visited Dhaka on September 15 after the interim government took the charge of the government on Au-gust 8.
Within two weeks of the visit of the US delegation, he said, US President Joe Biden is going to hold a meeting with Chief Adviser of Bangladesh Prof Yunus.
The upcoming meeting in New York indicates that the US will provide all kinds of support to Bangla-desh in the future, including reforms in various sectors after the political changeover, he added.
