Hasina off to Japan

Dhaka – Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Tuesday left Dhaka for Tokyo on a four-day visit to Dhaka in the first leg of her 12-day tri-nation trip.

Bangladesh is expected to sing a development assistance deal with Japan during her stay in Japan, the first destination of the trip to be followed by Saudi Arabia and Finland.

A special flight of the Biman Bangladesh Airlines carried the Prime Minister and the members of her entourage left Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport in the morning for the Japanese capital.

Senior ministers, lawmakers, ruling Awami League party leaders and civil and military officials saw the Prime Minister at the airport.

The flight is scheduled to land at Haneda International Airport of Tokyo in the evening local time. Japanese state minister for Foreign Affairs Toshiko Abe will welcome the prime minister at the airport.

Hasina will address the 25th International Conference on Future Asia, hold a number of bilateral talks including with her Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe and attend a signing ceremony during her four-day stay in Japan.

She is expected to join a Bangladeshi community reception to be hosted in her honour, meet with the family members of the Japanese victims of the 2016 terrorist attack on Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka and Japanese business leaders.

Hasina will attend a breakfast roundtable meeting with Japanese Business leaders and CEOs at Hotel New Otani on Wednesday to be followed by the meeting with the relatives of the Japanese victims of the Holey Artisan attack. Nine Japanese were killed in the attack on July 1, 2016 in Dhaka.

In the afternoon, Hasina will have a bilateral meeting with her Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe at his office. The two leaders are expected to witness a signing ceremony. A joint press statement will be released on the visit afterwards.

In the evening, she will attend the official dinner hosted by Shinzo Abe at his residence.

The Prime Minister is scheduled to attend the Nikkei Conference at Imperial Hotel where Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Bin Mohammad will give the keynote speech on Thursday.

She will then attend the 25th International Conference on the Future Asia at the same venue and deliver her speech. JICA president Shinichi Kitaoka will call on her at her place of residence.

Wrapping up the Japan visit, Hasina will leave for Saudi Arabia where she will be staying for three days until June 3. She is scheduled to join the opening ceremony of the 14th session of the OIC’s (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) Islamic Summit titled “Makkah Summit: Together for the Future” in Makkah on Friday.

She will premier will perform Umrah, the Muslim pilgrimage at the birth place of Islam.

Hasina will depart Jeddah for the Finnish capital Helsinki on June 3 where she will pay a courtesy call on president of Finland on June 4. She is expected to return home on June 8.

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