To attend the Pacific Environmental Security Forum I was in Wellington, New Zealand from 20-25 May 2019. The participants stayed in two hotels in Wellington: Bolton and Rydges. The venue of the Forum was Harbourside. It was a 15 minute walk from the Hotel to the conference venue. However I was too lazy to miss out the beautiful walkway of Wellington except for one morning when I missed the bus for a faction of a minute. It was a great discovery that unlike us in Dhaka, most of the working New Zealanders reach office in the morning and return home in the evening walking!
The opening ceremony of the Forum was graced by Honourable Ron Mark, Minister of Defence, New Zealand and Honourable Scott P. Brown, US Ambassador to New Zealand. There was a presentation on Bangladesh-India Sundarban Region Cooperation Initiative: A Vision of Joint Platform by Dr. Uttam Kumar Sinha, Fellow and Managing Editor, Strategic Analysis, Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses, India. Mr. Sanjeev Pandey, Programme Management Specialist, Office of Defense Cooperation, US Embassy, Kathmandu shared his networking experiences as a US Embassy official. There was a group exercise for the all the South Asian participants together. I was nominated to present the findings of the group exercise. I was feeling a bit nervous to address a gathering of around 200 people with mostly defense and environment exposure. At the Icebreaker Reception of the Evening I had an opportunity to briefly interact with the Honourable Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, New Zealand. The Reception took place at The Grand Hall at Parliament.
On my way back to Bangladesh I spend two days in Sydney. I had an opportunity to spend nights at the make-shift Consulate office in a rented hotel room. Though I heard stories from different colleagues about the challenges of opening up new missions in any new place; this time I observed it first hand.I saw the Australian Maritime Museum at the Darling Harbour and the World famous Sydney Opera. My foreign service batchmate Masud Bhai and his family were generous to give me a nice Pizza treat at a Darling Harbour restaurant. I had an Uber ride in Sydney. The taxi driver appeared to be well-conversant about Bangladesh's cricket team.
The morning I left the make-shift Bangladesh Consulate for the airport, I had an opportunity to avail the Consulate's brand new Staff Car. I came to know this was the first ever protocol duty of the Consulate with their brand new BMW. The Consul General himself saw me off at the airport. How lucky I am!
With New Zealand Foreign Minister Honourable Winston Peters
The opening ceremony of the Forum was graced by Honourable Ron Mark, Minister of Defence, New Zealand and Honourable Scott P. Brown, US Ambassador to New Zealand. There was a presentation on Bangladesh-India Sundarban Region Cooperation Initiative: A Vision of Joint Platform by Dr. Uttam Kumar Sinha, Fellow and Managing Editor, Strategic Analysis, Institute of Defense Studies and Analyses, India. Mr. Sanjeev Pandey, Programme Management Specialist, Office of Defense Cooperation, US Embassy, Kathmandu shared his networking experiences as a US Embassy official. There was a group exercise for the all the South Asian participants together. I was nominated to present the findings of the group exercise. I was feeling a bit nervous to address a gathering of around 200 people with mostly defense and environment exposure. At the Icebreaker Reception of the Evening I had an opportunity to briefly interact with the Honourable Winston Peters, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, New Zealand. The Reception took place at The Grand Hall at Parliament.
On my way back to Bangladesh I spend two days in Sydney. I had an opportunity to spend nights at the make-shift Consulate office in a rented hotel room. Though I heard stories from different colleagues about the challenges of opening up new missions in any new place; this time I observed it first hand.I saw the Australian Maritime Museum at the Darling Harbour and the World famous Sydney Opera. My foreign service batchmate Masud Bhai and his family were generous to give me a nice Pizza treat at a Darling Harbour restaurant. I had an Uber ride in Sydney. The taxi driver appeared to be well-conversant about Bangladesh's cricket team.
The morning I left the make-shift Bangladesh Consulate for the airport, I had an opportunity to avail the Consulate's brand new Staff Car. I came to know this was the first ever protocol duty of the Consulate with their brand new BMW. The Consul General himself saw me off at the airport. How lucky I am!
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