Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to deliver a virtual address at the annual UN General Assembly today in the evening at 6:30 pm.

The PMO twitter handle confirmed the PM’s address for today.

Advertisement

Due to the spread of coronavirus, this year’s UN General Assembly is being held virtually and world leaders are delivering their speeches in a pre-recorded video format.

Some of the priority issues for India at the ongoing 75th session of UN General Assembly will be to push for strengthening global action against terrorism, sources told news agency Press Trust of India.

They said that India will pitch for more transparency in the process of listing and de-listing of terror entities and individuals by the UN sanction committees.

“Being one of the largest troops contributing nations to the UN, India will also seek to engage intensively in finalising of mandates for the UN peacekeeping mission,” they said.

Amid the global pandemic of COVID-19, India is likely to highlight its role as a “pharmacy to the world” while highlighting its contribution to global cooperation against COVID-19 by aiding more than 150 countries, sources told Press Trust of India.

Earlier, the Indian side was represented by delegate Mijito Vinito, slammed Pakistan at the 75th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) saying that the rules and legislation brought in the Jammu and Kashmir are internal affairs of the country.

India’s response comes a day after the Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan had raised the issue of Kashmir at the UN Assembly saying, “Pakistan has always called for a peaceful solution. To this end, India must rescind the measures it has instituted since August 5 in 2019.”

“The only dispute left in Kashmir relates to the part of Kashmir that is still under illegal occupation of Pakistan. We call upon Pakistan to vacate all those areas that it is in illegal occupation of,” India said.

Accusing Pakistan of giving shelter to terrorists, India’s representative Mijito Vinito said, “The same leader who spewed venom today admitted in 2019 in public in the US that his country still has about 30,000-40,000 terrorists who have been trained by Pakistan and have fought in Afghanistan and in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.”

“This is the same country that provides pensions for dreaded and listed terrorists out of State funds. This is the same leader who called Osama Bin laden a martyr. This is the same country which systematically cleanses the minorities including Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and others through its abusive blasphemy laws and forced religious conversion,” he said.