External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj will hold a trilateral meeting with United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Japanese Foreign Affairs Minister Taro Kono on Monday. She is also slated to attend a high-level meeting of world leaders on UN reforms, which will be hosted and chaired by US President Donald Trump, PTI reported.
Swaraj, who reached New York City on Monday, will represent India at the 72nd United Nations General Assembly session and address the forum on September 23.
During her week-long stay in New York, she is scheduled to hold talks with Tunisian Foreign Minister Khemaies Jhinaoui, Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay and Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, among others.
India’s permanent Representative to the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin had earlier ruled out any meeting with representatives from Pakistan. India is likely to pursue a ban on extremist group Jaish-e-Mohammad’s chief Masood Azhar at the General Assembly.
Trump at the UN
On Tuesday, the US president will make his debut at the United Nations and address the General Assembly. He is expected to seek global support to pressure North Korea from carrying out any more nuclear tests. Vice President Mike Pence and Tillerson will both join him at the UN headquarters in New York.
Trump has described the UN as “a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time” and said it was not a “friend of democracy”. In 2016, he had threatened to reduce the United States’ contribution to the UN peacekeeping fund.
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