Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to address UN General Assembly on September 28

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will address the 68th session of United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 28 with a focus on combating terrorism, disarmament, UN reforms and development.

The UNGA, with a theme "Post-2015 Development Agenda: Setting the Stage!" will to be attended by nearly 193 member countries and is scheduled from September 17 to October 2.

The Prime Minister will address during the high-level meeting segment which will be from September 24 to 1 October 1, Additional Secretary Navtej Singh Sarna (International Organisations)in Ministry of External Affairs said here.

He also said External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid will reach New York and apart from attending ministerial meeting at the UN, will also hold bilaterals with ministers of China, Egypt, Libya, Germany and UAE among others.

Khurshid will also take part in G-77, NAM ministerial, BRICS, IBSA and G-4 meetings of Foreign Ministers.

On the theme of the debate this year, Sarna said India will push for poverty eradication without qualifiers e.g poverty eradication and climate change or poverty eradication and sustainable development.

"Development agenda should not become governance agenda," he said, adding development agenda should not only cover developing countries but also the consumption index of developed countries which impacts the growth of developing countries.

The agenda of Rio+20 on sustainable development that aims at protecting the interest of the developing and poor nations should not be "chipped" away and also the issue of common but differentiated responsibility (CBDR) should be there, he said.

He also said the India will focus on pushing for having a Concise Working Document on the UNSC reforms.

Noting that India had pressed for zero-tolerance for terror as Chair of Counter-terrorism Committee of the UNSC last year, Sarna said efforts to push for adoption of a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) were being brought down by "technicalities".