Hasina joins Munich conference as global leaders gather to discuss security

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has joined the 55th Munich Security Conference 2019 along with more than 600 high-level international decision-makers from politics, business, academia, and civil society.

Reazul Basharfrom Munichbdnews24.com
Published : 15 Feb 2019, 07:42 PM
Updated : 15 Feb 2019, 07:42 PM

Chaired by Ambassador Wolfgang Ischinger, the conference started at Hotel Bayerischer Hof on Friday morning.

Hasina was the first Bangladeshi head of government to attend the conference in 2017 that discusses current crises and future security challenges.

In the three-day conference this year, issues that might not yet be on the top of the security community's agenda will be in focus besides debates on the world's most relevant security challenges.

The Munich Security Conference embraces a comprehensive definition of security, which encompasses not only traditional national or military security, but also takes into account – among others – the economic, environmental and human dimensions of security.

Besides Hasina, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and many other heads of government and state are among the politicians who have joined the conference.  

The prime minister has been invited this year to address two sessions — “climate change as a security threat” and “health security”. She is also talking about the Rohingya crisis.

Earlier at a roundtable, ‘Health in Crises – WHO Cares, in the morning, she called for predictable financing for the health security initiatives in the developing nations and least developed countries or LDCs urging the World Health Organization to to lead the initiatives.

She also met Beatrice Fihn, executive director of the Nobel Peace Prize winner International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, and Dr Fatou Bensouda, chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court.

The prime minister will meet separately Joe Kaeser, the global president and CEO of Siemens AG and Hans Wolfgang Kunz, the CEO of Veridos GmbH, which is implementing an e-passport project in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is also expecting to sign a joint development agreement with Siemens that has proposed a big investment in the sector for power.

She will join a dinner reception with World Economic Forum President Børge Brende and Jigsaw CEO Jared Cohen.

On Saturday, the prime minister is likely to join a panel discussion on ‘Climate change as a security threat’ and leave on a night flight to Doha.

Hasina will visit Abu Dhabi from Feb 17 to Feb 19. She will hold bilateral talks with UAE leaders as she will also join the 14th International Defence Exhibition (IDEX 2019) in the United Arab Emirates.

She will meet Shekha Fatima Binte Mubarak Al Ketbi, wife of the late founder president of the UAE Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahiyan at the Al Bahar Palace.

She may have a bilateral meeting with Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktum, the vice president and prime minister of Arab Emirates and ruler of Dubai.

The prime minister is likely to join a programme hosted by the expatriate Bangladeshis in Abu Dhabi before returning to Dhaka on Feb 20.