PM Narendra Modi unlikely to attend UNGA session in September

UNITED NATIONS: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is unlikely to attend the annual UN General Assembly session here in September and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will address the high-level session, according to the provisional agenda released by the UN.

According to the first provisional list of speakers for the General Debate of the 72nd session of the General Assembly, Swaraj will address the high-level session on the morning of September 23. She had addressed the General Debate last year as well.

The General Debate will open on September 19 and run through September 25. All eyes will be on US President Donald Trump, who will deliver his first address to global leaders from the General Assembly hall's iconic green podium on September 19. The US is traditionally the second speaker on the opening day of the General Debate, after Brazil.

According to the list of speakers, Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to address global leaders on September 21. Modi had visited Washington late last month for his first bilateral meeting with Trump.

Modi had given his maiden address to the UN General Assembly as Prime Minister in 2014.

In 2015, he had attended the high-level UN Sustainable Development Summit ahead of the General Debate, when the world leaders had adopted the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, an intergovernmental set of aspiration Goals with 169 targets.

He had also attended the UN Peacekeeping Summit hosted by President Barack Obama when he had announced that India will contribute an additional battalion of 850 troops for UN peacekeeping operation. The summit was the only forum when Modi and Sharif had come face to face during their visit for the UN General Assembly.