New York, Sept: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who arrived here to participate in the 74th Session of the UN General Assembly, will have a packed schedule, meetings with a number of world leaders, including US President Donald Trump, and address the important sessions on climate change and universal health over the next five days.
Modi arrived at the J F K International Airport on Sunday night after delivering an electrifying address in Houston at the “Howdy, Modi” event to over 50,000 members of the Indian diaspora along with President Trump.
In a tweet, MEA Spokesperon Raveesh Kumar gave details of Modi’s engagements at the UN.
“Lending India’s voice to the global discourse,” he said in the tweet.
“PM @narendramodi arrives in #NYC for #UNGA74. PM will be participating in sessions on Climate Change, Sustainable Development Goals, and universal health among others and will meet India’s various regional/multilateral partners,” he said.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin has said that the country’s engagement and outreach at the 74th UN General Assembly will be unprecedented and will result in concrete, tangible, action-oriented outcomes.
A total of over 75 Heads of State and Foreign Ministers will be meeting with Modi, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan during the week across various platforms.
Modi’s day Monday will begin with the high-level Climate Action Summit hosted by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in the UN General Assembly chamber.
Modi is among the first set of speakers to address the summit, along with Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern, President of Marshall Islands Hilda Heine and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Over 63 countries have been invited to speak at the Summit, which will demonstrate solutions by governments, the private sector and civil society to reduce emissions and build climate resilience and adaptation.
Immediately after this session, Modi will address the first-ever High-level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage, which will launch new efforts to provide access for all to affordable, inclusive and resilient health systems.
Later in the day, Modi will address the ”Leaders’ Dialogue on Strategic Responses to Terrorist and Violent Extremist Narratives”, organized by a group of countries, along with the UN Secretariat, which deals with the Office of Counterterrorism.
The meeting is led by King of Jordan Abdullah II, President of France Emmanuel Macron and Ardern.
On 24 September, India will be highlighting a new feature of its approach at the UN through the plurilateral ”India-Pacific Islands Leaders” Meeting. India and the Pacific nations have met under the Forum for India-Pacific Islands cooperation (FIPIC), first in Fiji in 2014 and then in Jaipur in 2015.
Leaders of Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu will attend this high-level meet.
Modi has been invited by Bloomberg L.P. and Bloomberg Philanthropies Founder Michael Bloomberg to deliver the keynote address at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum in the morning of 25 September.
Following this, there will be a large number of interactions with CEOs. Later in the afternoon, India will engage with the CARICOM (Caribbean Community) group of countries at the first leaders’ level summit expected to last about two hours.
Leaders from Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago will attend this summit.
Modi will have several bilateral meetings during his visit and will address the General Debate on 27 September. He could have a bilateral meeting with Trump between 23 and 25 September
Jaishankar too has a packed schedule of meetings and engagements and he will participate in the BRICS, G4 and SAARC Foreign Ministers meet on the sidelines of the General Assembly session.
Muraleedharan will engage with the countries of the NAM, the Group of 77, the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures (CICA), Commonwealth and SAMOA Pathway.