Packed schedule awaits S.M. Krishna in New York
A packed schedule awaits external affairs minister S.M. Krishna who lands in New York on Tuesday to attend the opening week of the UN General Assembly besides engaging in an array of diplomatic engagements.
Mr Krishna will join other world leaders in speaking on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the annual General Debate and disarmament.
The MDG Summit kicked off on Monday at the UN headquarters and will continue till Wednesday when the minister is scheduled to address the United Nations General Assembly.
During the week, Mr Krishna will also be attending high-level meetings on Sudan and Burma. The minister will also be involved in several "plurilateral events" with several groups including G77, NAM, BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China), IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) and the G4 (India, Japan, Germany and Brazil).
Yesterday, IBSA Facility for Poverty and Hunger Alleviation (also called IBSA Fund) received the 2010 MDG Award for South-South Cooperation. Each country contributes $1 million annually to this, which is managed by the UNDP Special Unit for South-South Cooperation, and the money is used to combat poverty in other developing countries.
On the sidelines of the General Assembly, Mr Krishna will be busy with bilateral meetings with several countries. A formal meeting with Pakistan, however, has not yet been firmed up, according to Indian diplomats but a "pull aside" is possible as Mr Krishna and his counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi, will run into each other at common events.
On the other hand, the meeting with secretary of state Hillary Clinton has been finalised, and Mr Krishna will also be attending US President Barack Obama's reception in New York.
Meanwhile, environment minister Jairam Ramesh, who arrived earlier this week, has attended the Global Sustainability Panel meet convened by secretary general Ban Ki-moon, and the Major Economies Forum (MEF) in New York.
The countries present in the two-day MEF meeting are Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, and the United States.
Mr Ramesh also met leaders of the Alliance of the Small Island States (AOSIS) on Monday, which represent the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change.
Mr Ramesh will also be addressing the Conference on Biodiversity, this week. On Wednesday, minister for human resource development Kapil Sibal will join Yale President Richard Levin and Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi in a panel discussion to talk about different ways that leadership — whether in business, government or education — can accelerate social and economic change in India.
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