Sushma to interact with over 100 foreign ministers in New York

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj would be meeting more than 100 of her counterparts from across the world, including the new British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, during a slew of meetings in New York this month.

According to external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin, the external affairs minister would be travelling to New York on Sep 23. She will accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Washington for his summit meeting with US President Barack Obama on Sep 30.

Sushma Swaraj will stay back, after the prime minister returns, to attend the Oct 2 observance of the UN Day of Non Violence in honour of Mahatma Gandhi. She will be participating in a series of meetings in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

She will hold bilateral meetings as well as participate in plurilateral (more than two) and multilateral meetings while she is in New York, the spokesperson said.

Among the bilateral meetings she will hold there would be with Hammond who took over as foreign secretary on July 15 this year from William Hague, who had come to India to interact with the new Indian government a few days before handing over charge.

Sushma Swaraj would be attending the G 4 foreign ministers meeting, along with her counterparts from Japan, Brazil and Germany, on UN Security Council reforms.

She would also attend the IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) foreign ministers meeting, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) ministerial meeting, the India-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) ministerial meet with the troika of Costa Rica, Cuba and Equador.

There would also be the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) ministerial meeting, G-77 meeting and also a meeting of the committee on Palestine among others, the spokesperson informed.