New Delhi, Sept 17: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will attend the United Nations General Assembly session next week in New York where India's priority will be on reforms of the powerful Security Council to reflect the current realities.
Leaving on September 21 for participating in the high- level segment of the 66th session of the UNGA, India along with other members of the G-4 (Brazil, Japan and Germany) will work to push for reforms of the UNSC at the earliest for a robust international security and peacekeeping operations.
The G4 members are keen on getting permanent membership of the UNSC.
He will be accompanied by a delegation that will include External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and Principal Secretary to the PM T K A Nair.
Briefing reporters on the visit, Mathai said Singh would be addressing the UNGA on September 24 and that India's priority in the current session would be on working for reforms of the UN Security Council that should be reflective of current realities.
Singh would be attending the UNGA after a gap of two years.
He had last addressed the 2008 session.
He ruled out any meeting between the Prime Minister and US President Barack Obama, who would leave New York before Singh's arrival there on September 22, or with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who has reportedly cancelled his visit because of flood situation his country.
The G4 would carry forward the discussions held at the official level in Tokyo sometime ago on the issue of UNSC reforms.
India feels that unless comprehensive reform of the UNSC is undertaken the process of UN reforms would be “piecemeal and incomplete”.
Mathai said the Prime Minister will have bilateral meetings with a number of Heads of Government who will be in New York for the UNGA.
There will be a meeting of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) leaders in which there will be a discussion on economic issues.
“Beyond that I don't think there will be any occasion for discussing a specific issue,” Mathai said in reply to a question whether the Prime Minister would discuss with Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao the issue of incursion in Ladakh or its opposition to joint exploration of oil and gas in South China by India and Vietnam.
Mathai said the UNGA session was taking place at a time of continuing global economic and financial uncertainties with food and fuel prices at their peak whose impact developing countries were feeling.
As a key emerging major economy playing a constructive role in contributing to global economic recovery, India will reaffirm its commitment to working with the UN on furthering global economic and fiscal stability and balanced growth.
India would continue to focus attention of the UN on poverty eradication as the foremost developmental challenge and the need to foster and sustain inclusive growth as a primary requirement for poverty eradication.
“It is imperative that the international community joins hands to ensure that every effort is made to attain the Millennium Development Goals by 2015,” Mathai said. PTI
