PM Shehbaz to address UN General Assembly session on Sept 23

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is expected to arrive in New York on September 19 to attend the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

According to reports, the prime minister is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly on September 23. This will his first time to the United States since assuming office as prime minister.

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, and Federal Minister for Broadcasting and Information Maryam Aurangzeb will accompany the prime minister.

The delegation will also include the foreign secretary and other senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other departments.

Foreign Minister Bilawal and Hina Rabbani Khar will travel onward to Washington on September 25 for bilateral meetings with US officials. They are expected to stay until September 27 while the prime minister will return the same day after his address.

This year’s General Assembly will be the first in-person summit of world leaders at the United Nations since 2019. The 2020 and 2021 sessions were virtual or hybrid meetings due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The prime minister will attend two summits on food insecurity and climate change. He is unclear if he will hold any bilateral meeting with US President Biden on the sidelines of the UN session.

Before embarking on his tour, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will visit London on September 18. He is expected to attend the funeral of Queen Elizabeth being held in London on September 19.

Earlier, the prime minister will also visit Samarkand, Uzbekistan, to attend two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) scheduled on 15 and 16 September. He will return to Islamabad before embarking his trip to the UK and USA.

Pakistan is part of the SCO which also includes China, Russia, India and the Central Asian states of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

A bilateral meeting between President Xi and Prime Minister Shehbaz is on the cards at the sidelines of the SCO summit. Pakistan was exploring options for a possible bilateral meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Shehbaz Sharif.

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