Jaishankar meets visiting UN chief Guterres in Gujarat

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar met United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Gujarat’s Ekta Nagar town in Narmada district on Wednesday.

Visiting UN chief is on a three-day trip to India, his first visit since he commenced his second term in office in January this year. Guterres today paid tributes to the victims of the 26/11 terror attacks at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai and addressed students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay.
Terming India a partner of choice of the UN, he said New Delhi has increased its impact on the international stage due to the donation of medicines, equipment, and vaccines at height of Covid-19 to neighbouring countries.

“From your donations of medicines, equipment and vaccines at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, to your humanitarian assistance and development finance to Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, you’re increasing impact on the international stage. India is today a partner of choice of the UN,” Guterres said at IIT Bombay.
The UN chief said India’s digital platform Cowin is the largest vaccination program for Covid-19, delivering more than 2 billion doses.

He further said that India was the first country to launch a single-country south-south cooperation support framework via the India-UN development framework partnership.

On India’s contribution to UN Peacekeeping, Guterres said, “India is also the biggest provider of military and police personnel to UN missions, including the first all-women UN police contingent to a peacekeeping mission. Over 200,000 Indian men and women have served in 49 peacekeeping missions since 1948, a remarkable contribution to peace in the world. ”

“As a member of UNSC for two years, India’s contributed significantly to promoting multilateral solutions and addressing crises,” he added.

On October 20, in Gujarat (Ekta Nagar, Kevadiya), Guterres will join Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the launch of the Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment) booklet, logo and tagline. It may be recollected that the concept of LiFE was introduced by PM during COP26 at Glasgow in November 2021.

Mission LiFE will be India’s signature initiative at the United Nations and other international platforms for showcasing climate action and early achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, according to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) release.

“Its central idea reflects India’s ethos of respect for Mother Nature and aims at piloting a focussed program that will mobilise 1 billion Indians to become pro-planet people (3P), who would practice simple environment and climate friendly behaviour/actions in their daily lives to promote a shared commitment to protect our planet,” the MEA said.