Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra meets UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres

Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra met top UN leaders, including Secretary-General Antonio Guterres here and discussed issues of pressing concern.

Kwatra also met with President of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly Csaba Korosi and they discussed the priorities of the PGA for the session and how India could partner in those.

Foreign Secretary @AmbVMKwatra met with @UN Secretary General @antonioguterres. Issues of pressing concern were discussed, India's Permanent Mission to the UN tweeted on Thursday.

On Thursday, Kwatra addressed the UN Security Council open debate held under Ghana's Presidency of the 15-nation Council on Peacebuilding and sustaining peace: Integrating effective resilience-building in peace operations for sustainable peace.'

Later he met with Ghana's Minister of Foreign Affairs Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey. They expressed support for each other's priorities in the Security Council and discussed taking the - relationship forward, the Indian mission tweeted.

At the open debate, India urged the international community to call out those who provide safe havens to terrorists and come to their defense including in the UN Security Council sanctions regimes, a veiled reference to Pakistan and China.

The threat posed by terrorism...needs a unified voice from the international community," Kwatra said in his remarks.

"We should strengthen the capabilities of the host state security forces, join hands in preventing the terrorist forces from gaining access to financial resources and must collectively call out those who provide safe havens to terrorists as also those who stand with them and come to their defence, including in the UNSC sanctions regimes, he said.

Kwatra's remark appeared to be a veiled reference to Pakistan and China. In the past five months, China, a permanent, veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council has put holds on as many listing proposals made by India and the US to designate Pakistan-based terrorists under the Council's 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee regime.

Since June this year, China, Islamabad's all-weather ally, has put holds on proposals to blacklist Pakistan-based terrorists Hafiz Talah Saeed, Lashkar-e-Taiba leader Shahid Mahmood, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba terrorist Sajid Mir, senior Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM) leader Abdul Rauf Azhar and Abdul Rehman Makki under the Al Qaeda Sanctions regime.

India and the US had submitted proposals to designate the Pakistan-based terrorists and subject them to an asset freeze, travel ban and arms embargo but hit stumbling blocks when Beijing placed holds on the proposals.