After G20 success, India gears up to attend 78th UN General Assembly session

The world leaders will come together around the theme ‘Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress, and sustainability for all, writes Chandrakala Choudhury.

New Delhi:After a historic end to the G20 summit, India is now set to participate in the United Nations General Assembly session scheduled to take place from 19th-26th September. As per the latest provisional list of speakers, External Affairs Minister Dr Jaishankar will represent India at the UNGA.

Speaking to ETV Bharat, India’s former ambassador Jitendra Tripathi said, “Now that India has successfully concluded the G20, it has raised the bar for other host countries, and the country's stature in the world is raised. Having gained new confidence from G20 over the negotiations on SDG, especially on women empowerment, transition to green energy and peaceful resolution of conflict by diplomatic negotiations, India will represent itself at the UNGA with a new thrust and zeal to address such issues, because now our voice is not only being seriously heard but also agreed upon".

Tripathi said, "India at UNGA will surely emphasised on the contribution of the wealthy nations or development for the establishment of a fund of $100 billion for climate action and green energy transition, which was promised 10 years back. Special emphasis will be laid on the transition to solar energy and biofuel and India will especially mention about the newly launched economic corridor, in a way to let the world know that connectivity is most needed so that supply chains are not disrupted”.

Emboldened by the new confidence and success gained from hosting the G20, India will try to push the agenda on the major global issues including the Ukraine conflict that the whole world is looking forward to at the UNGA, Tripathi added. The 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly will mark a crucial milestone in the journey towards achieving the 2030 Agenda and the urgent need to put the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) back on track.

The world leaders will come together around the theme ‘Rebuilding trust and reigniting global solidarity: Accelerating action on the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals towards peace, prosperity, progress, and sustainability for all.

SDG summit, the Climate ambitions summit and General Debate are among the key areas of the United Nation General Assembly session. It is pertinent to note that during the G20 summit, India has pushed for advancing the sustainable development priorities of the Global South and with this India in the UN will be able to contribute to enhancing new growth and accelerating progress towards the Sustainable Development goals. The high-level general debate of the 78th session of the UNGA comes on the heels of the G2O summit which was attended by world leaders like US President Joe Biden and Turkish President Erdogan, Australian PM Albanese to name a few.

And India’s participation at the UNGA, will show the country’s strong and increasing relevance at the UN and the growing global stature on the world stage. The high-level General Debate of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly will begin on September 19, with Brazil as the traditional first speaker of the session, followed by the US.

According to the latest provisional list of speakers for the high-level general debate of the 78th session of the General Assembly, Jaishankar will address the General Debate on the morning of September 26, the last day of the high-level week. However, in the first provisional list of speakers, India’s “Head of Government” is scheduled to address the session in the afternoon of September 22.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address the high-level session on the first day of the General Debate, as the war with Russia continues to escalate. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will address on September 23.

It is worth mentioning that on June 21, PM Modi led a yoga session at the UN headquarters in commemoration the International Yoga Day. PM Modi has also proposed the UNGA to mark the day as an annual commemoration.

The general debate of the 78th session of the UNGA is considered the busiest diplomatic season of the year at the UN Headquarters, and the high-level session opens in September every year. The General Assembly hosts a much-watched debate of world leaders annually.

The meeting this time is expected to emphasize climate change, the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, and the war in Ukraine. The UN General Assembly delivers recommendations on many international issues and manages internal UN appointments and budget approval. Each UN member state gets one vote in the assembly. There are 193 UN member states, each with a vote in the General Assembly. However, the assembly’s President changes with each annual session and is elected by the body itself. The President of this year’s session is Denis Francis.