Macron to visit Dhanmondi Lake, enjoy folk music

While French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Bangladesh may feature signing of important business deals and discussions on geopolitical issues, he wants to see the beauty of Bangladesh and get a taste of the country’s culture.

As part of this, he is scheduled to walk through the Dhanmondi Lake in the capital, meet Joler Gaan (music of water), an independent folk band from Dhaka established in 2006, to enjoy its music.

Macron will meet Joler Gaan lyricist Rahul Anand at his workshop in the evening of September 10, the day when is scheduled to arrive in Dhaka after attending the G20 summit in New Delhi.

“France is a country that is famous for arts and culture. Also, Bangladesh and France have a very strong cultural cooperation. I think this visit of President Macron is part of that cultural cooperation as well as people to people connectivity,” a diplomatic source told The Daily Star yesterday.

Joler Gaan is famed both at home and abroad, and its reputation has surely reached up to the France president, said the source familiar with the events.

The folk band uses the lyrics based on human stories andsometimes customises foreign ones.

Apart from home, the band performed musical events in various parts of the world. In 2006, it participated in the World Sufi Festival, Glasgow, Scotland. Joler Gaan played mystical spiritual songs of Old Masters and also in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

According to the latest schedule of Macron’s two-day visit to Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will welcome him upon his arrival at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport on September 10 evening.

From the airport, Macron will directly go to Hotel InterContinental. There, he will attend an official dinner to be hosted by Hasina.

Then, Macron will go to the Dhanmondi Lake, walk through it and then meet the Joler Gaan band and enjoy its music.

On September 11 morning, he will pay homage to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by placing wreaths on Bangabandhu’s portrait and then visit the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at Dhanmondi-32.

The French president then will hold a bilateral meeting with Hasina at the Prime Minister’s Office.

There, France and Bangladesh may sign several deals, including one on buying planes from Airbus, a European plane manufacturing company, said another diplomatic source.

Earlier, Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen told reporters that during Hasina’s visit to France in November last year, Bangladesh agreed to buy 10 planes from Airbus, including two cargoes.

The two countries may also discuss purchasing of the second satellite Bangabandhu Satellite-2 from France and setting up of a satellite manufacturing plant in Bangladesh as proposed by France last year, Momen said.

Climate change and the Rohingya crisis will be two other major issues of discussion during the meeting, said foreign ministry officials.

“France played a major role in formulating the Loss and Damage initiative. So, the countries like Bangladesh that are affected by climate change need funding for making up part of the damage,” an official said.

Therefore, Dhaka will call on the French president to play further role in operationalising the fund of the Loss and Damage initiative, he told this correspondent.