Bangladesh invites UN Secretary General Guterres for 2025 visit

The government has invited UN Secretary General António Guterres to visit Bangladesh at a convenient time in 2025 to see by himself the transformation the country is going through.

On behalf of Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus, Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations Ambassador Muhammad Abdul Muhith extended the invitation on December 17.

The Secretary General reiterated his full support for the interim government headed by Prof Yunus.

He also expressed the hope that Bangladesh will continue its active role to promote multilateralism in the UN system, particularly in addressing the global challenges such as climate change, development, international peace and security, food and water insecurity, etc.

Ambassador Muhith paid farewell call on the UN Secretary General António Guterres in the UN Headquarters.

During the meeting, the Permanent Representative discussed the all-stakeholder high-level International Conference on Rohingya in the first quarter of 2025, as decided by the UN member states in the resolution adopted recently by consensus in the 79th session of UN General Assembly.

Ambassador Muhith sought Secretary General’s necessary cooperation in organising a result-oriented conference which would review the overall crisis in order to propose a comprehensive, concrete and time-bound plan for a sustainable resolution of the crisis, including voluntary, safe and dignified return of Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar.

The UN Secretary General expressed his deep concern over the plight of the Rohingyas and highly commended Bangladesh for sheltering the displaced Rohingyas.

He assured UN’s full support for the high-level conference in 2025 and emphasised the success of the conference towards finding an early and durable solution to the crisis.

Ambassador Muhith briefed the UN Secretary General about the formation of the six reform commissions by the interim government in the areas of public administration, Anti-Corruption Commission, judiciary, police, the electoral system, and the constitution, in the lead up to holding a free, fair and credible general election in Bangladesh.

The UN Secretary General highly appreciated Ambassador Muhith for his outstanding contributions as a PR of Bangladesh to the UN and expected that Bangladesh would benefit from his long experience and expertise in multilateralism in the coming years.

In the farewell call, the officials from Bangladesh Permanent Mission to the UN and the Executive Office of the Secretary General were present.

Ambassador Muhith, a career diplomat and former Bangladesh Ambassador to Austria and Denmark, joined the Bangladesh Permanent Mission in New York in August 2022.

During his tenure, he served as the President of the Executive Board of UNDP/UNFPA/UNOPS for 2024, Chair of the Second Committee (Economic and Financial) of UN General Assembly for its 79th Session, Chair of UN Peacebuilding Commission for 2022 and Vice Chair for 2023, and President of Executive Board of UN Women for 2022.

He has been elected as a member of the prestigious International Civil Service Commission (ICSC) for 2025-2028 in a heavily contested election held in November this year at the UN Headquarters in New York.