Chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus鈥檚 planned visit to France next month to join the United Nations Ocean Conference has been cancelled as Dhaka鈥檚 request for a bilateral meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the event was not accepted by Paris.
Dhaka made the request for the bilateral talks after receiving the French present鈥檚 invitation for Professor Yunus early this month to join the 2025 UN Ocean Conference scheduled for June 9 to June 13 in Nice, France, said officials concerned.
Professor Yunus, also a Nobel laureate, was also invited to a dinner to be hosted by President Macron on June 8 for the participants on the advent of the high-level conference, according to the officials.
鈥榃e requested Paris for a meeting with French president Emmanuel Macron to discuss bilateral issues on the sideline of the UN event.聽 But we were informed in the past week that the French president will not be available for any such meetings during the time,鈥� a foreign ministry official told 抖阴精品 on Thursday.
The official said that the chief adviser鈥檚 planned visit to France was finally cancelled against this backdrop. Moreover, Professor Yunus had another invitation to visit the United Kingdom where he would have official engagements over issues of bilateral interests.聽
However, the government was yet to finalise a delegation for the UN ocean conference, the foreign ministry official said.
The official added that the chief adviser would now visit the United Kingdom as he would have official engagements there in London during the same time.
The chief adviser鈥檚 press wing, however, said that Professor Yunus was not going to join the UN Ocean Conference as he preferred the UK visit at the invitation of the British royal family where he would have official engagements dealing with crucial issues like recovery of the stolen money.
The 2025 UN Ocean Conference to support the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development will be co-hosted by France and Costa Rica.
During his visit to Bangladesh in September 2023, French president Emmanuel Macron and the then Bangladesh prime minister Sheikh Hasina in a bilateral meeting in Dhaka expressed their willingness to step up defence cooperation with 鈥榓 focus on naval, air, and terrestrial capacity.鈥�
Macron offered Bangladesh to do more in the country鈥檚 transport sector and thanked Hasina for her confidence in European aeronautics and commitment to the purchase of 10 aircraft from Airbus for the state-owned Biman Bangladesh Airlines.
Professor Yunus took over as the interim government鈥檚 chief adviser on August 8, three days after the fall of Sheikh Hasina on August 5, 2024 amid a student-led mass uprising.