Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave Dhaka for Baku on Thursday (Oct 24) for a four-day official visit to Azerbaijan to attend the 18th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).

The two-day summit of the NAM, a forum of 120 developing countries, will be held at Baku Congress Centre in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku on Oct 25-26, reports state news agency BSS.

“Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will join the summit along with other heads of state and government of the member states of the NAM,” PM’s Press Secretary Ihsanul Karim told BSS on Wednesday (Oct 23).

According to the schedule of the visit, a special flight of Biman Bangladesh Airlines carrying the premier and her other entourage members will take off from Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka for Baku on Thursday afternoon.

The flight is scheduled to land at Baku Heydar Aliyev International Airport at 8:55 pm local time the same day.

After the reception at the airport, a ceremonial motorcade will escort the prime minister to Hilton Baku, where she will be staying during her tour to Azerbaijan.

On Friday morning, Sheikh Hasina will join the welcome ceremony of the 18th NAM Summit at Baku Congress Centre.

Azerbaijan President, Prime Minister and Speaker are expected to receive the NAM leaders at the venue.

Along with other NAM leaders, the Bangladesh prime minister will attend the opening ceremony of the summit at the Plenary Hall of Baku Congress Centre.

Afterward, Sheikh Hasina will join Working Luncheon for heads of the delegation at the Luncheon Hall of the centre and the Plenary Session.

In the evening, the prime minister will attend the official reception to be hosted by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev at Heydar Aliyev Center.

On Saturday, Sheikh Hasina will join the Plenary Session, the Working Luncheon for the heads of delegation and the Closing Ceremony of the summit.

She will attend a dinner to be hosted at Hilton Baku by the Bangladesh Ambassador to Turkey who is concurrently accredited to Azerbaijan.

On the sidelines of the NAM Summit, the prime minister is expected to meet a number of heads of state or government, foreign ministry sources said.

Concluding her four-day visit to Azerbaijan, the prime minister will depart Baku Heydar Aliyev International Airport for home by a Biman Bangladesh Airlines’ special flight at 11am local time on Sunday.

The flight is scheduled to reach Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka at 7:45pm (BST) the same day.

The NAM is a forum of 120 developing world states that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide.

Drawing on the principles agreed at the Bandung Conference in 1955, the NAM was established in 1961 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia through an initiative of Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito.

Venezuela’s Margarita Island hosted the 17th NAM Summit in 2016. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro is the current chairperson of the NAM.