Bangladesh had an unusually visible week at the United Nations in New York. Prime Minister Tarique Rahman addressed the 81st session of the UN General Assembly for the first time, and a Bangladeshi, Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman, is presiding over the Assembly as its President.

A first address, in Bengali

The Prime Minister arrived at JFK Airport on 21 September and addressed the General Assembly on 24 September. He spoke in Bengali and raised climate change and the Rohingya crisis among other global issues.

Climate on the agenda

At a UN high-level meeting on sea-level rise on 24 September, the Prime Minister warned that a 25 cm rise by 2050 could submerge about 4 percent of Bangladesh's land and affect about 10 million people. He called for four urgent actions: faster and fairer cuts in global emissions to keep warming to 1.5°C, predictable and accessible climate finance for coastal adaptation, wider access to climate-smart technology and early-warning systems, and stronger international cooperation on climate-induced displacement.

He also set out Bangladesh's own plans: at least 20 percent of electricity from renewable sources by 2030, and over the next five years, excavating about 20,000 km of rivers and canals and planting 250 million trees.

Meetings in New York

His schedule included meetings with UN Secretary-General António Guterres, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, a discussion on the Rohingya crisis, an event on maternal health and a Wall Street breakfast with business leaders. He travelled with his wife, Dr. Zubaida Rahman.

A Bangladeshi presides over the Assembly

Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman was elected President of the 81st General Assembly on 2 June and took office on 8 September. He is only the second Bangladeshi to hold the post, after Humayun Rasheed Choudhury in 1986 to 1987. A veteran diplomat educated at Tufts and Harvard, he has spent much of his career working on the development of the world's least developed countries.

For the diaspora

For Bangladeshis in New York and across America, it was a week in which their country's voice was heard clearly at the world's main diplomatic forum, from the podium and from the chair.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org, press.un.org