In her speech Honourable Prime Minister (HPM) Sheikh Hasina at the UN General Assembly reiterated that Bangladesh will continue to promote democracy and rule of law as per its constitution. “In this session, I would like to unequivocally reiterate that Bangladesh will continue to promote democracy, rule of law and freedom of expression in line with Bangladesh’s constitution,” she said. The premier said this while addressing the general debate of the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly at the UN headquarters. Like previous years, she delivered her address in Bangla following the footsteps of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu who had addressed the UNGA first in Bangla in 1974. “Over the last decade, significant reforms have been made to our legal system to ensure equal legal protection and access to justice for everyone. As a responsible state, Bangladesh is fully committed to protecting and promoting human rights,” she added.

HPM Sheikh Hasina called for developing an international cooperation framework as part of the prevention of pandemics, placing five proposals to be addressed by the global community. "The COVID-19 pandemic has been a turning point for us all. We lost many around the world. We realized that nature has its own limits for human intervention. We also experienced unprecedented global solidarity. We admitted that none of us is secure until everyone is," she said. The premier told this while addressing the 78thUNGA High-Level Meeting on Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response (PPPR) at the Conference Room of the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

HPM Sheikh Hasina said that the world's major economies should exercise honesty about climate change to avoid an impending crisis. "We expect the world's major economies to remain honest about climate change and do their fair share to avert the impending crisis," she said. The premier made the remarks in a" High-Level Thematic Session of Climate Ambition Summit on "Delivering Climate Justice: Accelerating Ambition and Implementation on Adaptation and Early Warnings for All" at the ECOSOC Chamber. Bangladesh's latest National Plan for Disaster Management has adopted an integrated multi-hazard early warning approach, the primer added.

HPM Sheikh Hasina has urged the world community, particularly the ASEAN member states, to redouble their collective efforts to repatriate Rohingyas to their homeland in Myanmar side by side with executing the resolutions of security council and general assembly to ensure a sustainable solution to the crisis. "I urge the world community to remain seized of the matter and continue to keep this issue at the top of our agenda alongside continuing our humanitarian efforts to ensure the sustenance of these ill-fated and hapless human beings," the premier told in her first and second proposals. Elaborating her third proposals, she said, "Pursue ongoing and available legal and multilateral mechanisms to ensure accountability of the perpetrators who committed persistent, systemic, and systematic heinous atrocities against this ethnic minority. "She said within a few months' time, nearly a million people ran into Bangladesh as they saw their houses being burnt; families being killed.

HPM Sheikh Hasina called for developing an international cooperation framework as part of the prevention of pandemics, placing five proposals to be addressed by the global community. The three priorities among the five are - concessional international financing for health system strengthening in developing countries, mobilizing resources and expertise for pandemic surveillance, prevention, preparedness and response in a science-based manner; ensuring equitable and unrestricted access for all to quality, affordable, and effective pandemic products, including vaccines. The remaining two priorities are production diversification of pandemic products through access to technology and know-how; and developing an international cooperation framework for access and benefit sharing among concerned parties, with WHO in the lead.

Bangladesh has made remarkable progress in education over the years and was among the first few developing countries to achieve gender parity in lower secondary school, said Abdoulaye Seck, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan. Impressed by the achievements, the World Bank official approved $300 million to help Bangladesh recover from learning losses incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, introduce complementary online learning blended with in-class education to build system resilience, improve learning outcomes and teaching quality, and reduce the dropout rate in secondary education. With an aim to accelerate learning, the programme will have a focus on core subjects such as mathematics, English and Bangla for grades 6 and 8, as these are foundational for future learning.

Bangladesh has again been placed in the top world position in ship recycling as the country recycled more than one-third of the world's ships, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) new report said. According to the report, the country recycled 2.8 million tonnage of ships, which was 37.2% in the world in 12 months up to January 2023. In 2022, Bangladesh witnessed a 65% fall in ship breaking amounting to 2.8 million from 8.02 million in the previous year, said the report titled “Review of Maritime Transport 2023”. In 2023, interest in ship recycling picked up as shipping market conditions softened and issues relating to letters of credit in Bangladesh eased.

The bilateral ties with Japan marked a strategic rise with the signing of an agreement between the countries for implementation of Matarbari Ultra Super Critical Coal-fired Power project to supply uninterrupted electricity. In this regard, the Economic Relations Division (ERD) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Signed ‘Exchange of Notes’ and ‘Loan Agreement’ for the 7th tranche of financial assistances for the project. This project is being implemented to meet growing electricity demand and to improve stable power supply by installing 1200 MW (600MWx2 units) Ultra SuperCritical Coal-fired Power Plant at Matarbari Area of Maheshkhali Upazila under Cox’s Bazar district.

Bangladesh was yesterday elected a member of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for the third time since it joined the 177-nation global organisation in 1972. The election took place in the 67th General Conference of the IAEA being held in Vienna from September 25 to 29, according to media reports. Bangladesh will be representing the geographic region of Middle East and South Asia, comprising 15 countries, in the 35-member Board of Governors. IAEA is helping Bangladesh to ensure safety, security and the safeguard issues related to the Ruppoor Nuclear Power Plant apart from knowledge and technology transfer in other areas of peaceful uses of the nuclear energy including food security, health and nutrition, and pollution reduction.