Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus returned home on Thursday morning after a nine-day visit to New York for the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), where he urged world leaders to confront global crises with urgency and vision.

An Emirates Airlines flight carrying Prof Yunus and his small entourage landed at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 9am. 

Bangladesh Ambassador to the United States Tareq Md Ariful Islam and Permanent Representative to the UN Salahuddin Noman Chowdhury saw him off at John F Kennedy International Airport, said his Deputy Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad Majumder.

Prof Yunus began his UNGA programme on September 22, wrapping it up on Tuesday with a high-level conference on the “Situation of Rohingya Muslims and Other Minorities” at the UN General Assembly Hall.

On September 26, he addressed the assembly, warning that “the truth before us is frightening” as “extreme nationalism, geopolitics that thrive on the suffering of others, and indifference to human pain are destroying the progress humanity has built through decades of struggle.”

He pointed to Gaza as a stark example of this tragedy and called for the immediate implementation of the two-State solution.

Looking to the future, Prof Yunus urged nations to rally around three goals for young people: zero carbon emissions, zero wealth concentration and zero unemployment. “Let the dream of a three-zero world be the dream of all nations,” he declared.

Joining his delegation in New York were BNP Secretary-General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, BNP leader Humayun Kabir, Jamaat-e-Islami Nayeb-e-Ameer Syeed Abdullah Muhammad Taher, Jamaat’s US spokesperson Mohammad Nakibur Rahman, National Citizen Party member secretary Akhter Hossen, and first senior joint member secretary Dr Tasnim Jara.

The visit highlighted Bangladesh’s immediate concerns – notably the Rohingya crisis – while also positioning the Chief Adviser as a voice for global peace, justice and youth-driven solutions.