Page 83 - United Nations

'New epoch' is arriving, says UN President Korosi on general assembly meet

The war in Ukraine and its global fallout transfixed the meeting of world leaders at the UN General Assembly this year. When it wasn't out front, it lurked in the background of virtually every speech. There were near-unanimous calls for an end to the seven-month war, with rich and poor countries decrying the fallout from the conflict widespread shortages and rising prices not only for food but for energy, inflation hitting the cost of living everywhere, and growing global inequality. The speeches and side meetings produced no breakthroughs toward peace, but they did put the top diplomats from Russia and Ukraine in the same room for the first time in many months, however briefly. And UN food chief David Beasley sounded an alarm that the war, on top of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, has left 50 million people in 45 countries knocking on famine's door". He warned of starvation, destabilisation of nations, riots, and mass migration if help doesn't arrive quickly. In his strongest, ..

UNGA closes debate on transformative solutions to interlocking challenges

This year's general debate of the UNGA concluded, after representatives of 190 member states spoke around the theme of "A watershed moment: transformative solutions to interlocking challenges".

UN chief Guterres calls for all-out efforts to eliminate nuclear threat

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the use of every means to eliminate the nuclear threat.

Global tourism recovers, but nowhere near pre-pandemic levels: UN agency

International tourism has continued to show signs of recovery, but is unlikely to return to pre-pandemic levels anytime soon, the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) said.

EU countries plan to delay Russian oil price cap amid divisions: Report

Countries may push to have a preliminary deal ahead of an informal gathering of EU leaders in Prague on Oct 6

UN's Education Cannot Wait fund receives $42 million from donors

Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, has received $42 million in new funding from the LEGO Foundation, Germany and the US, said the fund.

On Ukraine, Russia repeats insistence to the world that it had no choice

Russia made its case to the world Saturday for its war in Ukraine, repeating a series of grievances about its neighbor and the West to tell the U.N. General Assembly meeting of leaders that Moscow had no choice but to take military action. After days of denunciations of Russia at the prominent diplomatic gathering, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov sought to shift the focus to Washington. His speech centered on a claim that the United States and its allies not Russia, as the West maintains are aggressively undermining the international system that the U.N. represents. Invoking history ranging from the U.S. war in Iraq in the early 2000s to the 20th-century Cold War to a 19th-century U.S. policy that essentially proclaimed American influence over the Western Hemisphere, Lavrov portrayed the U.S. as a bully that tries to afford itself the sacred right to act with impunity wherever and wherever they want and can't accept a world where others also advance their national interests. The ..

India really matters more in this polarised world: EAM Jaishankar

India really matters more in the current polarised world and the country is perceived very widely as the voice of the global South, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said. Jaishankar wrapped up the New York leg of his visit to the US as he addressed the high-level UN General Assembly session Saturday, concluding a hectic week of whirlwind diplomatic engagements during which he met over 100 of his counterparts from around the world and held several bilateral and multilateral meetings. "There's no question this UNGA reflects the state of the world, which is particularly polarised at this moment. What the state of the world actually reveals in a way is that India matters more. We are a bridge, we are a voice, we are a viewpoint, a channel," Jaishankar told a group of Indian reporters here as he highlighted some of the big takeaways of his week-long visit to the UN and the city. He will head to Washington DC Sunday for the second leg of his US visit. Jaishankar said that at a time

EAM Jaishankar meets UN Chief Guterres, discusses global challenges

EAM S Jaishankar met UN chief Antonio Guterres on the margins of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly in New York and discussed global challenges including the Ukraine conflict

Russia's Lavrov backs India for permanent member in UN Security Council

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov backed India for becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council.While addressing the 77th United Nations General Assembly, Lavrov said, "We see prospective of making Security Council more democratic via representation of countries from Africa, Asia & Latin America. India and Brazil, in particular, are key international actors and should be counted for permanent membership in the council."While addressing the Assembly, Lavrov accused Western countries of "throwing a fit" over the referendum that is being conducted in Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine on becoming a part of their federation.The Russian Foreign Minister said the crises surrounding the war were growing, and the international situation was rapidly deteriorating, but instead of having an honest dialogue and searching for a compromise, the West was "undermining confidence in international institutions" and encouraging negative tendencies within the United Nations as well,

Discussed Ukraine, G20, UN reforms with Russia's Lavrov, says Jaishankar

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that he and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov discussed various issues including Ukraine, G20 and UN reforms

'External interference' won't be tolerated, says China on Taiwan at UNGA

China underscored its commitment on Saturday to its claim on Taiwan, telling assembled world leaders that anyone who gets in the way of its determination to reunify with the self-governing island would be crushed by the wheels of history. The language was forceful but, for Chinese leadership, well within the realm of normal. Only when China is fully reunified can there be true peace across the Taiwan Strait, Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, said at the UN General Assembly. He said Beijing would take the most forceful steps to oppose external interference. China regularly and vehemently defends its claim to Taiwan, which separated from the mainland after a 1949 civil war and now functions with its own government. A visit last month by the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, markedly ratcheted up tensions between Washington and Beijing. The language, while pointed, reflected China's typical intensity about the island; its claim seldom goes unmentioned in maj

Arogya World wins the prestigious UN award for initiative against NCD

/ -- Arogya World is thrilled to be selected as a recipient of the 2022 UN Interagency Task Force and the WHO Special Programme on Primary Health Care Award. The award recognized Arogya World for its work in scaling up community-based delivery models to strengthen prevention and control of diabetes at the population level, across 19 states in India. Expressing her views, Dr Nalini Saligram, Founder & CEO, Arogya World, said, "This is a proud moment for us, as Arogya World is the only non-profit working in India to receive this prestigious award. This is global recognition for the work that my team has been doing for more than a decade, working tirelessly on the prevention of NCDs at the population level in India. We thank Dr Venkat Narayan from Emory University for nominating us, and thank all our partners and supporters for helping us improve the health of millions of Indians throughout our vast country. This award spurs us on to do more, with a greater sense of responsibility, ..

Pakistan seeks peace with all its neighbours including India: PM Shehbaz

Pakistan is looking for peace with all its neighbours, including India but sustainable peace and stability in South Asia remain contingent on a just and lasting solution to the Kashmir dispute, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said here on Friday. In his address to the high-level UN General Assembly session, Shehbaz claimed that India's illegal and unilateral actions on August 5, 2019 to change the special status of Jammu and Kashmir further undermined the prospects of peace and inflamed regional tensions. Pakistan needs a stable external environment. We look for peace with all our neighbours, including India. Sustainable peace and stability in South Asia, however, remains contingent upon a just and lasting solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, he said. I think it's high time that India understood this message loud and clear that both countries are armed to the teeth. War is not an option. It is not an option. Only peaceful dialogue can resolve these issues so that the world becom

Vladimir Putin stages 'votes' to annex occupied Ukrainian territories

The Kremlin ordered the ballots after its forces suffered their worst defeats to Ukraine's military since the early weeks of the seven-month-long invasion

India among world leaders to join US in seeking UN Security Council reforms

A number of world leaders have joined the United States in seeking reforms in the UN Security Council and including India as one of its permanent members, giving momentum to the demand for expansion of the powerful wing of the United Nations. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida stressed reforming the United Nations, including its security council "to return to the vision and principles of the UN Charter, with the strengthening of the UN's functions, including disarmament and non-proliferation". In his address at the annual session of the UN General Assembly, Portuguese Prime Minister Antnio Costa said, "We need a representative, agile and functional security council that can respond to the challenges of the 21st century without becoming paralysed, and whose actions are scrutinized by other members of the United Nations." Costa sought a security council that incorporates a comprehensive view of security, recognising the role of climate change as an accelerant of conflict. Observin

Russia defends war in Ukraine as US, others call for accountability at UN

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of creating threats against Russian security and 'brazenly trampling' the rights of Russians and Russian-speakers in Ukraine

India discusses cooperation among IBSA countries in multilateral fora

India has discussed ways to step up cooperation among IBSA countries in various multilateral fora, including the UN, WTO and G20, on major issues of in the international agenda. The IBSA (India, Brazil, South Africa) has emerged as a key tripartite grouping for the promotion of cooperation in a range of areas. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday hosted the 10th India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Trilateral Ministerial Commission Meeting along with Brazil's Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Alberto Franco Frana and Dr. Joe Phaahla, Minister of Health of the Republic of South Africa. "The Ministers expressed satisfaction on the coordination and cooperation among IBSA countries in various multilateral fora, including the UN, WTO, WIPO and G20, on major issues of international agenda. They reiterated their intention to further deepen IBSA cooperation on international issues at various International Organisations and groupings," according to a joint statement issued after

UK's PM Liz Truss slams Putin for turmoil, hails queen in debut UNGA speech

British Prime Minister Liz Truss has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of making "saber-rattling threats" to cover his failed invasion of Ukraine, as she prepared to tell the United Nations that its founding principles were fracturing because of aggression by authoritarian states. In her debut speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday night, Truss will call the war in Ukraine a battle for "our values and the security of the whole world," and extol the late Queen Elizabeth II as a symbol of everything the U.N. stands for. The text of the speech was released in advance by Truss' office. Responding to a statement from Putin that he was mobilizing reservists and would use everything at his disposal to protect Russia an apparent reference to his nuclear arsenal -- Truss accused the Russian leader of "desperately trying to justify his catastrophic failures". "He is doubling down by sending even more reservists to a terrible fate," the speech said. "He is desperately trying t

Hope peeked through the gloom at 77th UNGA meet despite global morass

The head of the United Nations had just warned of a world gone badly wrong a place where inequity was on the rise, war was back in Europe, fragmentation was everywhere, the pandemic was pushing onward and technology was tearing things apart as much as it was uniting them. "Our world is in big trouble. Divides are growing deeper. Inequalities are growing wider. Challenges are spreading farther," Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Tuesday morning as he opened the general debate at the 77th UN General Assembly. And he was, on all counts, incontrovertibly correct. Yet barely an hour later, here were two UN delegates one Asian, one African grinning and standing in the sun-dappled lobby of the UN Secretariat Building, thrilled to be there in person on this particular morning as they snapped photos of each other, laughing along the way as they captured the moment. Hope: It can be hard to find anywhere these days, much less for the people who walk the floors of the United Nations, .