DHAKA — Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman will leave Dhaka on Tuesday, November 10, for a three-day official visit to Türkiye, where he will attend the World Leaders' Summit of COP31, the United Nations climate conference, in Antalya, Foreign Secretary Salahuddin Noman Chowdhury told reporters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Dhaka on Monday, November 9.

Source: The Business Standard, Nov 9 2026

The leaders' summit takes place in Antalya on November 11-12, inside the wider COP31 conference that opened on Monday and runs to November 20. Rahman is scheduled to address a plenary session on November 12 and deliver Bangladesh's national statement, and to hold several bilateral meetings with world leaders on the sidelines, the foreign secretary said.

Source: Views Bangladesh (UNB), Nov 9 2026

COP31 opened in Antalya on Monday after a delayed and tense start, with UN Secretary-General António Guterres warning of a 'new age of climate extremes' and an early dispute over climate finance — the same finance question Bangladesh is travelling to press. Read: COP31 opens in Antalya amid finance row

Who he may meet

"There is a possibility of a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the sidelines of the conference," Chowdhury said at the briefing. The Business Standard reported that the foreign secretary also confirmed meetings with the Australian prime minister, the president of Uzbekistan, the vice president of China and the British foreign minister. United News of Bangladesh, carried by Views Bangladesh, reported that arrangements for the sideline engagements were still being finalised, that bilateral meetings were being arranged with Erdoğan, the Australian prime minister, the president of Uzbekistan and the British foreign secretary, and that a meeting with the Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) was also being explored.

Source: The Business Standard, Nov 9 2026

The meetings are expected to cover strengthening bilateral relations, expanding trade and investment, cooperation on climate change and other matters of mutual interest, and Chowdhury said he hoped they would create new opportunities to advance Bangladesh's economic and geopolitical interests. On a possible Erdoğan meeting, he said overall cooperation between Bangladesh and Türkiye could be discussed, but specific project arrangements were unlikely to be settled in a courtesy meeting on the sidelines of a multilateral conference — including, he said in answer to a question, Turkish company Çelebi's interest in ground-handling services at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport's third terminal.

Source: Views Bangladesh (UNB), Nov 9 2026

Rahman will be accompanied by his spouse Dr Zubaida Rahman, the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, two state ministers for foreign affairs, the prime minister's special assistant on environment, forest and climate change, government officials and a media team, UNB reported. The visit would be his second meeting with Erdoğan after the two held bilateral talks at the Turkish House in New York on September 22, on the sidelines of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly, Green Watch reported.

Source: Green Watch, Nov 9 2026

Bangladesh's case: grants, not loans

In his plenary address, Rahman will outline Bangladesh's position on climate justice, the historical responsibility of developed countries, climate finance, adaptation, loss and damage, and climate-resilient sustainable development, Chowdhury said. Bangladesh contributes only 0.05 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions, the foreign secretary said, yet remains among the countries most vulnerable to climate change — so securing climate justice is one of Dhaka's foremost priorities, alongside adaptation finance, loss and damage, and making developed countries actually deliver their climate-finance commitments.

Source: Views Bangladesh (UNB), Nov 9 2026

State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed Islam has recently said Bangladesh would urge developed countries to provide climate finance in the form of grants rather than loans and to take responsibility for their contributions to global carbon emissions. "Although Bangladesh's contribution to global carbon emissions is almost negligible, we are ultimately among those suffering the consequences," she said. Dhaka will also highlight its climate-resilience achievements and its experience of climate impacts across South Asia and the wider Asian region, and underline the support it still needs.

Source: The Business Standard, Nov 9 2026

Bangladesh has also set up a jute pavilion in the conference's Green Zone to showcase jute as an environmentally friendly alternative to plastic, and a joint declaration between Bangladesh and Türkiye on the use and promotion of jute and jute products is envisaged during the conference, Chowdhury said. The foreign ministry will hold two side events in the Blue Zone on November 12 and 13 — one on gender-based vulnerability to climate change in Bangladesh, and one on biodegradable, zero-waste jute products.

Source: Views Bangladesh (UNB), Nov 9 2026

What happens next

Türkiye is presiding over COP31 while Australia is co-chairing the formal negotiation process, Chowdhury noted. Rahman departs on Tuesday, speaks on Thursday, November 12, and is scheduled to return to Bangladesh the same afternoon, Green Watch reported. What Dhaka brings home — on climate finance language, on the envisaged jute declaration with Türkiye, and on any Erdoğan bilateral — will be read across South Asia, where low-lying, low-emission countries are pressing the same grants-not-loans case at Antalya.

Source: Green Watch, Nov 9 2026