Prime Minister reaches the Russian capital on a three day visit

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Vladimirovich Margulov received Hasina at the airport, in presence of. Bangladesh Ambassador to Russia SM Saiful Hoque.

The Prime Minister was then driven to the President Hotel in a motorcade amidst full-proof security. She will stay at the hotel throughout the tour.

Several MoUs and agreements are expected to be signed during this visit.

An agreement for setting up a nuclear power plant in Rooppur is likely to top the agenda.

Hasina left Dhaka on Monday on a Bangladesh Biman flight around 9am.

This is the first official visit of a Bangladesh Prime Minister to Moscow since Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s visit of the erstwhile Soviet Union in April 1972 immediately after Bangladesh became independent.

Foreign Minister Dipu Moni, State Minster for Science and Technology Yeafesh Osman, Ambassador-at-large Mohammad Ziauddin and the Prime Minister’s Chief Secretary M Wahiduzzaman are accompanying Hasina.

Moni told a news briefing on Sunday that Bangladesh and Russia were slated to focus on ties in the field of nuclear energy, defence and economic cooperation.

Six MoUs and four agreements including one for setting up a nuclear power plant in Bangladesh are likely to be concluded during the Prime Minister’s Russia visit, she had said.

A $1 billion agreement on defence purchase is also expected to take place during the visit.

This is the Prime Minister’s second visit to Russia. Hasina visited Moscow in 2010 to attend an international summit that discussed saving tigers.

On the second day of her visit, the Prime Minister will hold a bilateral meeting with her Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and join a lunch hosted by him.

Several memorandum of understandings on agriculture, health, education, culture, law and justice and counter-terrorism and several agreements are expected to be signed in the presence of the two leaders.

The agreement for a $ 500 million State Export Credit to finance the preparatory stage of the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant will be signed, alongwith an agreement for establishment of a nuclear energy information centre in Dhaka.

A $500 million MoU is also expected to be signed ‘for securing the understanding reached with the Russian side on the key parameters of financing the actual work of Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.’

On the last day of her visit , the Prime Minister will attend a reception programme at the Moscow State University and deliver a speech on Bangladesh-Russia cooperation . In 1972, her father Bangabandhu Sheiklh Mujibur Rehman had also delivered a speech at this university.

On Wednesday , Hasina will hold talks with the Director General of Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM, Sergey Kirienko.

She will later visit the Kremlin museum and the office of the energy giant, Gazprom.

The Prime Minister will be back home on Jan 17 morning.bdnews24.com

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