Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the annual high-level UN General Assembly session on September 27 and will have a packed agenda of bilateral and multilateral engagements during his nearly week-long stay in New York.
According to an updated list of speakers for the General Debate of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Modi will address the high-level session on the morning of September 27.
As prime minister, Modi had given his maiden address to world leaders at the UN General Assembly in 2014. His visit in September and address to world leaders at the UN will be the first after winning a second term as Prime Minister in a resounding electoral victory in May.
According to the list of speakers, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan is scheduled to address global leaders on September 27. Khan will address the UNGA session shortly after Modi’s address.
The initial speakers’ list indicates that about 112 Heads of State, nearly 48 Heads of Government and over 30 Foreign Ministers will arrive in New York to address the General Debate.
The General Debate will commence on September 24 and run through September 30. US President Donald Trump, who had delivered his first address to global leaders from the General Assembly hall’s iconic green podium in 2017, will address the high-level session on the morning of September 24. The US is traditionally the second speaker on the opening day of the General Debate, after Brazil.
Modi has a packed agenda of bilateral and multilateral engagements in the UN and New York area during his nearly week-long visit to the city.
He will be honoured by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
The Indian leader will be presented with the 2019 Global Goalkeeper Award’, which according to the Foundation is a “special recognition” that celebrates a political leader who has demonstrated their commitment to the Global Goals through impactful work in their country and/or globally.
Modi will be honoured for his leadership of the Swachch Bharat Mission, which he had launched on October 2, 2014.
The ambitious mission aims to accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage in the country by this year as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary.
So far, 90 million toilets have been built to eliminate open defecation by October 2, 2019 and currently 98 per cent of India’s villages have rural sanitation coverage instead of 38 per cent four years ago.
The Foundation will host the fourth annual Goalkeepers ‘Global Goals Awards’ on September 24.
As the world commemorates Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, Modi will also host a special event ‘Leadership Matters: Relevance of Gandhi in the Contemporary World’ on September 24 in the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Chamber in the UN Headquarters.
He will also be the keynote speaker at the Bloomberg Global Business Forum on September 25. Sources have said that after Modi’s keynote address, there will be a Q&A session with the Indian leader moderated by Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies Founder Michael Bloomberg.
The Forum gathers global business and government leaders to discuss innovative and collaborative ways to solve the new challenges to global economic growth, the organization said.
During his visit to New York, Modi will also inaugurate the Gandhi Peace Garden’, an innovative initiative to commemorate Gandhi’s 150 birth anniversary this year.
Under this initiative, the Consulate General of India in New York, Long Island-based NGO Shanti Fund and the State University of New York – Old Westbury have entered into an agreement to plant 150 trees.
The garden is dedicated in the memory of Gandhi and is a crowdsourced project, with people adopting trees in the memory of their loved ones. The garden is in an open site within the 600 acres campus of the University.
