Diplomatic Correspondent

Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus will hold a bilateral meeting with US President Joseph R Biden on Tuesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

The meeting will be held at 9:30 pm (Bangladesh time), which will be the first meeting of the Bangladesh interim government chief with the US President.

“On September 24, the Bangladesh government chief and the US president will hold the meeting at 11 am (local time) at the UN headquarters in New York,” councilor of Bangladesh Permanent Mission to the UN Fahmid Farhan said.

Diplomats said the meeting of Chief Adviser Prof Yunus and US President Biden indicates that the US administration wants to enhance diplomatic and economic relations with the Prof Yunus-led Bangladesh's interim government.

Through this talks, the US administration is sending a clear message to Bangladesh that it is keen to boost bilateral ties, they said.

Diplomatic sources said during the high level talks between Joe Biden and Prof Yunus, the two leaders will discuss in detail how diplomatic and economic relations could be enhanced in writing a new chapter in bilateral relations between Bangladesh and the United States.

They will also discuss the US support in implementing the reform agendas taken by the Bangladesh interim government.

Foreign Affairs Adviser Md Touhid Hossain told BSS that he believes the Nobel Peace Laureate and a world-renowned personality like Prof Muhammad Yunus would play a positive role in leading the Bangladesh delegation and speaking for Bangladesh in the UN session.

So, he said, this session is very significant for Bangladesh.

A diplomat at the Bangladesh Permanent Mission to of the United Nations said once the US President gives a speech at the UNGA session, he hosts a reception in the afternoon of that day in honour of the heads of state and government joining the session.

Holding a bilateral meeting between the US President and the top leader of any country during the UNGA session is very rare, he said.

So far, the US President did not hold any meeting with any top leader of Bangladesh on the sidelines of the UNGA session, while the US president have always met and talked to the heads of state and government of Bangladesh at the reception hosted by the US President.

Besides, there was no meeting between the heads of Bangladesh government and the US top leader at the UN General Session.

About significance of the Biden-Yunus talks, the Bangladeshi diplomat said a US high-level delegation visited Dhaka on September 15 after the interim government took the charge of the government on August 8.

Within two weeks of the visit of the US delegation, he said, US President Joe Biden is going to hold a meeting with Chief Adviser of Bangladesh Prof Yunus.

The upcoming meeting in New York indicates that the US will provide all kinds of support to Bangladesh in the future, including reforms in various sectors after the political changeover, he added.