Ban in India on a three-day trip

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UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon reached the capital here this afternoon on a three-day visit. During his visit, New Delhi will be hoping to give its bid for UN reforms, including an expansion of the UN Security Council, yet another push.

Now in his second term as the UN secretary-general, Mr Ban will be meeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and external affairs minister S.M. Krishna. He met Union health minister Gulam Nabi Azad on Thursday.

India is currently a non-permanent member of the UNSC and is hopeful that it will finally be a permanent member of the Council’s high table once its membership is expanded. On Friday, the secretary general will being conferred an honorary doctorate by the Jamia Millia Islamia. On Satur-day, he will be in Mumbai where he will be meeting Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan.

Apart from this, he wil be visiting some UN development projects in Mumbai and participating in a Millennium Development Goals related event.

The ministry of external affairs in a statement said: “The UNSG’s visit here comes in the context of India’s strong commitment to multilateralism and its wide-ranging contribution to efforts of the UN, including its specialized programmes and agencies. It is expected that UNSG’s visit will provide an opportunity for us to share India’s perspectives on major regional and global issues.”