Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina likely to attend G-20 summit

Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to visit India in September to join the G-20 summit on an invitation sent by her Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, a foreign ministry official said here on Sunday.

India officially assumed the G20 presidency on December 1. The country is expected to host over 200 preparatory meetings across the country. The next G20 Leaders’ Summit at the level of heads of state or governments is scheduled to be held on September 9 and 10 this year in New Delhi.

An official in the foreign ministry, who is familiar with the development, said despite being a non-member of the G-20, Hasina would join the summit as a guest.

“Our Prime Minister is likely to meet her counterpart on the G-20 summit sidelines, apparently in the last meeting ahead of the general elections in both countries,” said the foreign ministry official familiar with the development.

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He said under a tradition G-20 chair invites guest countries and international organisations like the UN, IMF, World Bank, WHO, and WTO beyond the member states to the grouping’s summit.

The host country invited Bangladesh as the only country in South Asia to the summit to be held on September 9-10 while the other non-memmber countries to get the invitation are Egypt, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and the UAE.

The foreign ministry officials said, as part of preparations for Hasina’s New Delhi visit, several high-level meetings would be held in both the capitals and India’s foreign secretary Vinay Kwatra is expected to arrive in Dhaka on a two-day visit in mid-February to prepare the ground.

G20 or Group of 20 is an intergovernmental forum of the world’s major developed and developing economies. It comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union.