PM, MEA ministers hold over 20 bilateral meets at UNGA

PM, MEA ministers hold over 20 bilateral meets at UNGA

New York: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, India

New York, Sep 24 (IANS) With Pakistan aggressively focusing on Kashmir on the sidelines of UN General Assembly meet, India too has been keeping up with its diplomatic outreach and on Monday held meetings with leaders of over 20 countries.

"While Prime Minister Narendra Modi held six bilaterals, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar held 11 meetings and Minister of State S. Muraleedharan too had his share of meetings," Gitesh Sarma, Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs said at a briefing in New York.

Modi held meetings with the Presidents of Namibia, the Maldives, Niger, the Prime Minister of Italy, the Emir of Qatar and the UNICEF chief on the margins of the UN General Assembly here.

Jaishankar held discussions with his counterparts from the UAE, Equatorial Guinea, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, The Netherlands, Iran, and the US special envoy on Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad.

Muraleedharan attended the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA), an inter-governmental forum.

"India held around 20-25 meetings throughout the day," said Sarma.

Besides, Modi also participated in the Climate Action Summit, where he was among the leading speakers. He addressed the first-ever UN General Assembly high-level meeting on universal health coverage, and spoke at the closed door Leaders' Dialogue on Strategic Responses to Terrorist and Violent Extremist Narratives.

"India's rising stature, both as a democracy and a major influential country came out in the three events," said Sarma.

--IANS

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