S. Jaishankar Arrives In New York, Diplomatic Week At UNGA

On September 19, 2022, Indian Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar arrived in the United States. The High-Level General Assembly Session of the United Nations is the reason for this tour, which will also feature more than 50 formal meetings on a bilateral and multilateral basis.

“Beginning on Monday, September 20, 2022, General Debate will kick off the session,” IndiaAtUNGA. I’m happy to greet our minister of external affairs, @DrSJaishankar, who is in town for the 77th session of the @UN General Assembly, #UNGA. During this busy week, he will co-host and take part in a number of bilateral, plurilateral, and multilateral meetings. India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, said in a tweet on Sunday.

During the UN General Assembly, some of the important topics that will be considered are counterterrorism, peacekeeping, reformed multilateralism, climate action, and fair access to COVID-19 vaccines.

World leaders assemble annually at the UN headquarters in New York to debate and find solutions to the most serious global problems at hand.

This is the 77th session after the inaugural one, which took place in 1946.

Several bilateral talks with counterparts from Albania, Malta, Egypt, Indonesia, and the 77th UNGA Session’s president, Csaba Korosi, will be part of Mr. Jaishankar’s first day of engagements. He will also serve as the keynote speaker at the trilateral meeting between France, India, and the United Arab Emirates.

The five S’s, namely—Samaan (Respect), Samvad (Dialogue), Sahyog (Cooperation), Shanti (Peace), and Samriddhi (Prosperity)—highlighted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will serve as India’s guiding lamp in its diplomatic approach to the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly, as per a video released by the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations.

It stated that India would continue to highlight its commitments and accomplishments in women-led development fields, particularly women’s leadership and political participation at the very grassroots level, give counterterrorism issues more prominence, and actively participate in peacekeeping issues as a major troop-contributing nation.

As part of South-South cooperation, it will also focus on strengthened engagement with other developing nations through the India-UN Development Partnership Fund and IBSA Fund, as well as on reformed multilateralism, commitment to climate action, equitable, affordable access to vaccines, and reformed multilateralism.

According to the video, “India’s priorities at the 77th UNGA will also be driven by its basic foreign policy goals, including supporting and increasing overall domestic socio-economic progress, enhancing local security, and leading collective global action, in keeping with the vision” of Mr. Modi.

During his trip to the United States from September 18 to September 28, Mr. Jaishankar will also visit Washington, D.C. He will have a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in New York.

According to a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs, Jaishankar will host a ministerial gathering of the G4 (India, Brazil, Japan, and Germany) and take part in the High-Level Meeting of the L.69 Group on Transatlantic Relations “Bringing Multilateralism Back to Life and Complete UN Security Council Reform.”

The L.69 Group, which is keenly focused on UN Security Council changes, is made up of developing nations from continents of Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Small Island Developing States.

He would also participate in trilateral formats including India-France-Australia, India-France-UAE, and India-Indonesia-Australia, as well as plurilateral meetings of the Quad, IBSA, BRICS, India-Presidency Pro Tempore CELAC, as well as India-CARICOM.

Mr. Jaishankar will hold discussions with his counterpart Secretary of the State Antony Blinken, senior members of the American Administration, US business leaders, and interact with the Indian Diaspora while he is in Washington DC from September 25 to 28 for bilateral meetings with American counterparts.

In order to further solidify the strategic alliance between India and the US, the visit “would allow a high-level assessment of the diverse bilateral agenda and improve collaboration on regional and global challenges.”

In December of this year, when India will be the Council’s President, India’s current two-year term on the U.N. Security Council will come to an end.