Arakan News Agency
The prime minister will leave Dhaka aboard a Biman Bangladesh flight for Damman on Sunday morning.
Hasina will then observe the 23-country joint military operation ‘Gulf Shield – 1’ before attending the closing ceremony.
She is flying to Saudi Arabia at the invitation of King Salman Bin Abdulaziz.
Bangladesh is participating in the military operation that began in the western region of Saudi Arabia on Mar 18.
The military operation is the largest in the region in terms of participating countries and equipment and ammunition used.
Bangladesh had previously signed a military alliance with a Saudi-led coalition.
“Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia’s cooperation has expanded from the religious, political, economic and cultural sector to the military one,” Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali said at a press conference.
Following her attendance at the closing ceremony, Hasina will leave for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting London 2018 on Monday evening local time.
The heads of the Commonwealth countries will be meeting from Apr 17 to Apr 21 at the invitation of UK Prime Minister Theresa May.
She will be accompanied by the foreign minister, the state minister for foreign affairs, the state minister for women’s and children’s affairs, the prime minister’s chief secretary, the SDG affairs chief convener and top officials from the Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
This year’s topic of the meeting is ‘Towards a Common Future’.
Bangladesh and the Rohingya crisis were discussed at the pre-Commonwealth Meeting, the foreign minister said. The Commonwealth countries expressed their solidarity with Bangladesh for the first time, he said.
“It is to be expected that the prime minister will discuss the current state of this situation with the heads of the Commonwealth countries.”
Sheikh Hasina will lead the Commonwealth Women’s Forum session on ‘Educate to Empower: Making Equitable and Quality Primary Education and Secondary Education a Reality for Girls Across the Commonwealth’ at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre on Apr 17.
Sheikh Hasina will also be the key speaker at the UK research institute ODI’s ‘Bangladesh’s Advances in Development: Policy, Progress and Possibilities’.
She will also participate in a roundtable discussion on ‘Can Asia Keep Growing’ on Apr 18.
That evening she will attend a reception and dinner organised by UK Prime Minister Theresa May. She will attend the inauguration and reception of the Commonwealth summit on Apr 19.
The prime minister is also scheduled to attend a reception by the Commonwealth secretary general and a dinner by Queen Elizabeth II.
She will attend the concluding executive session of the summit on Apr 20 and then attend a Royal Commonwealth Society-0rganised reception and the queen’s birthday event. She will also attend a reception organised by the expatriate Bangladeshi community.
The prime minister will also sit for bilateral talks with the heads of government of various countries.
Hasina is scheduled to return to Dhaka on Apr 23.
