PM Modi won’t go for September UNGA session

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not attend the annual high-level UN General Assembly session here next month and the Indian delegation will be led by external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj, according to the provisional agenda released by the UN here.

Senior Indian diplomats also confirmed to PTI that Ms Swaraj is “as of now” scheduled to head the Indian delegation for the General Debate of the 71st session of the General Assembly.

The General Debate will open on September 20 and will run through September 26, when Swaraj will address the annual high-level debate.

According to the first provisional list, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to attend the General Debate and address the global leaders on September 21.

Sources, however, added that the programme for Sharif to attend the General Assembly session could change as they cited his health.

Mr Modi had given his maiden address to the UN General Assembly as Prime Minister in 2014, when addressing the world leaders in Hindi he had also made a clarion call to commemorate an annual International Yoga Day.

Last year, he had attended the high-level UN Sustainable Development Summit ahead of the General Debate, when world leaders had adopted the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an intergovernmental set of aspiration goals with 169 targets.

He had also attended the UN Peacekeeping Summit hosted by US President Barack Obama when he had announced that India will contribute an additional battalion of 850 troops for UN peacekeeping operation.

The summit was the only forum when Modi and Sharif had come face to face during their visit for the UN General Assembly.

The two leaders had only waved at each other as they sat across from each other on a horse shoe-table for the peacekeeping summit.

According to the provisional list, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and President Maithrapala Sirisena of Sri Lanka are also expected to address the world leaders.

As per tradition, Brazil’s president opens the General Debate every year and is followed by the US President.