PM Modi not to attend UNGA session next month

TIL Desk/World/United Nations-Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not attend the annual high-level UN General Assembly session here next month and the Indian delegation will be led by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, according to the provisional agenda released by the UN here.  Senior Indian diplomats also confirmed that Swaraj is “as of now” scheduled to head the Indian delegation for the General Debate of the 71st session of the General Assembly.

The General Debate will open on September 20 and will run through September 26, when Swaraj will address the annual high-level debate. According to the first provisional list, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is scheduled to attend the General Debate and address the global leaders on September 21.

Sources however added that the programme for Sharif to attend the General Assembly session could change as they cited his health. Modi had given his maiden address to the UN General Assembly as Prime Minister in 2014, when addressing the world leaders in Hindi he had also made a clarion call to commemorate an annual International Yoga Day.