General Assembly President-elect discusses UN with Indian experts

United Nations Aug 29 (IANS) UN General Assembly President-elect Miroslav Lajcak discussed "the overall work of the organisation and possibilities for its further improvement" with a distinguished group of Indian foreign policy and experts in New Delhi.

The chairman of the Research and Information Systems for Developing Countries Hardeep Singh Puri who organised the working dinner told IANS on Monday that they had a broad exchange of ideas about the UN and world affairs. Vijay Nambiar a Chef de Cabinet to former Secretary General Ban Ki-moon; Amar Sinha the former Secretary for Economic Relations in the External Affairs Ministry; former Foreign Secretary Muchkund Dube; and India s Permanent Representative Syed Akbaruddin attended the dinner. Puri who is a former Permanent Representative to the UN described their exchanges with Lajcak as a broad tour of the horizon of international affairs. They discussed the working of the General Assembly the challenges before the UN Security Council reform and India s contributions to the global organisation and its perspectives he said. The meeting took place during Lajcak s two-day visit to New Delhi to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. A former foreign minister of Slovakia Lajcak was elected in May as the President of the next session of the General Assembly due to starts in September. (Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in) --IANS al/ksk