PM reaches Budapest to attend Water Summit

Biman Bangladesh Airlines flight carrying Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina reached Budapest tonight after an emergency landing in Hungary in the morning.

A VVIP Biman flight landed at Ferenc Liszt International Airport at 6:15 pm (local time), Shakil Meraj, General Manager (public relations) of Biman, told The Daily Star.

Hungarian Minister of State for Security Policy and International Cooperation Istvan Mikola, Bangladesh Ambassador to Hungary M Abu Zafar, Hungarian Ambassador in Dhaka Gyula Petho and Chief of Protocol of Hungary Istvan Manno received the Prime Minister at the airport, reports UNB.

Earlier around 2:00pm, the Boeing 777 was compelled to make an emergency landing at Ashgabat airport in Turkmenistan because of “technical glitch”.

After four hours of repairs and a test run, the plane is now back in air – en route to Hungary where it will land at around 11:00pm Bangladesh time, the Biman PR manager said.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was on her way to Hungary for a four-day visit to attend the Budapest Water Summit 2016. She took off from Dhaka yesterday.

During the summit on November 28-30, some 1,800 participants, including over a dozen of heads of state and government from 117 countries will lay down their proposed solutions for the relevant international bodies by adopting the “Budapest Statement 2016”.

The premier is attending the summit at the invitation of János Áder, president of Hungary. The prime minister along with her Hungarian counterpart will jointly inaugurate Bangladesh-Hungary Business Economic Forum.