Dhaka – President of Marshal Island Hilda Heine and Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon have arrived in Dhaka to join a crucial meeting on climate change adaptation in Bangladesh, officials said on Tuesday.

Foreign Minister Abul Kalam Abdul Momen received the two leaders who travelled by separate flights at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport.

The Marshallese president and the South Korean diplomat will join the Dhaka Meeting of the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA).

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate the meeting at a Dhaka hotel on Wednesday.

Moon, who served as Secretary-General of the United Nations for the two consecutive terms from January 2007 to December 2016, held a brief meeting with Momen at the airport on his arrival in the evening.

The former UN secretary general, the current chair of GCA, will address a session titled ‘way forward and next step’ towards climate change adaptation.

Heine, who arrived in the city earlier in the day, called on President Abdul Hamid at the Bangabhaban presidential palace.

Prime Minister Hasina will hold a joint meeting with the Marshall Island President and the former UN chief ahead of the inauguration of Wednesday’s meeting to discuss issues related to climate change adaptation efforts.

Hilda, Ban Ki-moon and World Bank CEO Kristaline Georgieva who is also the CGA Co-Chair will also speak in the opening session of the meeting. Foreign Minister Momen will deliver the welcome address.

The meeting will end at noon with the remarks of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Minister M Shahab Uddin.

Different sessions titled ‘community dialogue’, ‘action tacks – mobilizing accelerated adaptation and support’, and ‘mobilizing a global audience – communication tools and events’ will take place after the inaugural session.

The Marshal Island president, Ban Ki-moon and the World Bank CEO are also scheduled to visit Rohingya Camp as well as Khrushkul Special Asrayan Project at Ukhiya in Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday afternoon.

Ban Ki-moon will leave Dhaka in the early Thursday.

The CGA, leading by Ban Ki-moon, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and World Bank CEO Georgieva, is guided by 32 commissioners and 19 convening countries, representing all regions of the globe, and co-managed by the Global Center on Adaptation and World Resources Institute, according to the state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha news agency.

newsnextbd.com/n