PM to visit 3 countries next month

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will likely begin tours to the UK, Bulgaria and Japan from mid-May to visit her relatives and join two international events.

Diplomatic sources said the PM will attend the Unesco-sponsored Global Women Leaders' Forum on May 18-20 in Sofia, Bulgaria.

In Japan, she will take part in an outreach meeting during the G7 Summit on May 26-27 at Ise-Shima. This will be her second trip to the island nation during her current tenure (2014-2018).

Hasina last visited Japan on May 25-28, 2014. Earlier, she had been there in 1997 and 2010.

Foreign ministry officials have been planning for the PM's meetings with her counterparts in Japan and Bulgaria as well as with some other heads of government and state.

The PM is expected to leave Dhaka for London on May 14 to meet her niece Labour MP Tulip Siddiq.

Also a granddaughter of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Tulip gave birth to her first child, a girl, on April 9. Tulip and her husband Chris Percy have named the baby Azalea Joy.

Hasina will fly to Bulgaria on May 17 to attend Global Women Leaders' Forum. According to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), the Forum will bring together women leaders from business, politics, social and cultural areas.

The Bangladesh premier is scheduled to address the opening ceremony of the Forum on May 18. Participants at the Forum will find a platform to discuss current trends of women's empowerment and gender equality and explore ways to support and improve the role of women in business and society.

Hasina will return home on May 20. She is likely to leave for Japan on May 25 on a four-day visit to join the outreach meeting.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has invited the heads of state and government of non-G7 countries and chairpersons of international organisations to join the meeting.

From Asia, the heads of state and government of Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Papua New Guinea have been invited.

The outreach meeting will engage in discussions to explore what is needed to sustain the well-being of Asia, which is steering economic growth as the growth center of the world.