Online Desk: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave Dhaka on Tuesday on a 15-day official tour to Japan, the USA and the UK, while Dhaka is expected to sign around eight deals with Tokyo during the visit.

Foreign Minister Dr AK Abdul Momen said in a curtain raiser briefing at the foreign ministry on Monday.

“In the presence of the two prime ministers (Bangladesh and Japan), nearly eight Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) are likely to be signed between the two countries”, he said.

He said the deals on agriculture, metro rail, industrial upgrade, ship recycling, customs matters, intellectual properties; defence cooperation, ICT and cyber security cooperation will be signed during the visit in Japan.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will leave Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on a special flight from Biman Bangladesh Airline at 7:45 am on Tuesday and on the same day she is scheduled to arrive in Tokyo at 5:00 pm (local time).

Momen said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will pay a curtsey call on Emperor of Japan Naruhito on April 26.

On the same day, she will hold a bilateral meeting with her Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida after the signing of the deals.

The meeting will conclude with a dinner at the residence of the Prime Minister of Japan, said the foreign minister.

During the visit to Japan, the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is also scheduled to attend an investment summit and a community reception.

She will also hand over the ‘Friends of Liberation War Honour’ to four Japanese nationals for their contribution to Bangladesh’s Liberation War in 1971, Momen said.

The Prime Minister will arrive in the United States from Tokyo to attend the ceremony, marking a 50-year partnership between Bangladesh and the World Bank in Washington DC on May 1.

On May 4, Momen said, Bangladesh’s premier would leave Washington for London to attend the coronation of Charles III and his wife, Camilla, as king and queen of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms.

The Prime Minister will leave London for Dhaka on May 8.

State Minister for foreign affairs Md Shahriar Alam also spoke at the briefing.