General Assembly session: Heavy agenda planned as president flies out

Will meet Clinton, Cameron; scheduled to speak at event on polio eradication.

UNITED NATIONS:

President Asif Ali Zardari will arrive in New York today (Sunday) to lead the Pakistan delegation to the 67th session of the UN General Assembly, in which over 120 world leaders are expected to participate.

The president will address the 193-member assembly on Tuesday when the high-level debate begins.

During his four-day stay, President Zardari will confer, among others, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Nato Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

The president will also speak at a high-level event on polio eradication, sponsored by the United Nations and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The topic for the session, which will be presided over by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, is: Our Commitment to the Next Generation. Earlier this year, the secretary general had set out an action agenda that identified five generational imperatives: sustainable development, prevention, a more secure world, helping countries in transition and empowering women and youth.

Some of the issues likely to dominate this year’s debate, which will conclude on October 1, are the ongoing crisis in Syria and the humanitarian emergency in the Sahel region of West Africa, along with the situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and relations between Sudan and South Sudan as well as problems related to economic development.

The session is shaping up to be one of the busiest general debates ever. 

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2012.