Summit of the Future: once in a generation UN summit

The Summit of the Future (SoTF) will take place on 22-23 September, prior to the High Level Week of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.

The origin of the SoTF can be traced to the report ‘Our Common Agenda (OCA)’ of the Secretary General submitted to the UNGA in September 2021. One of the recommendations of the OCA was a proposal for a Summit of the Future.

PM Narendra Modi will address the SoTF in the forenoon session of 23 September 2024. Bilateral meetings, on the sidelines of the SoTF, will also take place.


The theme of the Summit is ‘Multilateral Solutions for a Better Tomorrow’. Secretary General António Guterres has called the Summit a ‘once in a generation UN Summit’. SoTF is an important milestone in the history of the UN as it enters the 80th year of its establishment in 2025.

A Pact for the Future (with its two annexes Global Digital Compact and Declaration on Future Generations) will be the outcome document of the SoTF.

The UN General Debate will be held between 24-28 and 30 September. The theme of the General Debate this year is “Leaving no one behind: acting together for the advancement of peace, sustainable development and human dignity for present and future generations”.

The Prime Minister has addressed the UNGA for four times in the past – in 2014, 2019, 2020 (virtually) and in 2021.

The Summit is expected to witness participation of a number of world leaders. The Pact for the Future is seen by many in the Global South as an opportunity to highlight issues of importance in the areas of health, energy security issues, climate change, transform institutions of global governance, economic inequalities, etc.

Jaishankar will take part in the General Debate and deliver India’s national statement likely on September 28. He will also have other bilateral, plurilateral and cross-regional engagements.