Imran to address UN General Assembly on 24th

Prime Minister Imran Khan will be among more than 100 heads of state and government to address the annual high-level segment of the UN General Assembly session next week, according to the latest speakers list issued on Tuesday.

The prime minister will address the 76th session of 193-member General Assembly via a video link on Sept 24, two days after the beginning of the general debate. This will be second consecutive year of online proceedings of the global forum.

The General Assembly opened on Tuesday afternoon, with Abdulla Shahid of Maldives in the chair, Shahid has been elected the General Assembly President, replacing Volkan Bozkir of Turkey.

The theme of the General Assembly this year is: “Building resilience through hope – to recover from Covid-19, rebuild sustainability, respond to the needs of the planet, respect the rights of people, and revitalise the United Nations”.

US President Joe Biden, King Abdullah of Jordan and besides the presidents of Turkey, Brazil, Venezuela and Palestine as well as prime ministers of the UK, Japan and India will be among the leaders present at UN headquarters to deliver their speeches.

Besides Imran, the others delivering pre-recorded statements this year will be the presidents of Iran, Egypt, France, Indonesia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.

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Modi will speak on September 25, a day after attending the Quad Leaders’ Summit in Washington hosted by Biden.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is reaching New York on September 20 to participate in several events on the sidelines of the assembly, besides holding bilateral meetings with his various counterparts.

The foreign minister will attend a meeting of the OIC Working Group on Kashmir, a ministerial meeting of the Uniting for Consensus (UfC) group on Security Council reform and a high-level meeting on energy. Qureshi will also meet the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

At the General Assembly, the last scheduled speakers on September 27 are from the delegations of North Korea, Myanmar, Guinea and Afghanistan. Currently, the Afghan envoy to the UN is Ghulam Issaczai, who was appointed by former president Ashraf Ghani in June 2021. The interim Taliban government has not yet made any submission, challenging Isaczai’s credentials.