Modi Slated For September 25 UNGA Address In New York

NEW YORK, NY- Prime Minister Narendra Modi is slated to address world leaders during the high-level General Debate of the UN General Assembly in New York in September, according to a preliminary schedule.

The timing of his address is likely to be adjusted when the schedule is finalized to an hour that is convenient for audiences in India.

The 81st session of the General Assembly will be presided over by Bangladesh Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman, who was elected president of the General Assembly in June. The theme for the session is ‘Restoring trust, managing transformation: A United Nations that delivers for all.’

Away from the General Assembly podium, where presidents, kings, prime ministers, princes and ministers will deliver their formal addresses, leaders are also expected to hold several hundred formal and informal meetings on the sidelines.

Two key world leaders, Presidents Xi Jinping of China and Vladimir Putin of Russia, will not be at the meeting, according to the preliminary schedule.

Xi is reported to be skipping the UN meeting and travelling to Washington for a summit with Trump that week.

With attention focused on the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian is scheduled to speak on September 23.

From the other major hotspot, the General Assembly will hear Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. (IANS)