Former Prime Minister of Cameroon Philemon Yang will take over as President of the 79th Session of the General Assembly on September 10….reports Asian Lite News
Describing India as a leader at the United Nations, General Assembly President Dennis Francis has said the country has been an avid and committed advocate of multilateralism and as a democracy of 1.4 billion people, it has a bright future in making a continued strong contribution to global affairs.
The remarks by Francis, the President of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly, came ahead of the end of his year-long tenure on Monday as head of the 193-member UN body.
“There’s no doubt about it – India is definitely a leader at the United Nations. India has been an avid and committed advocate of multilateralism, which is very much valued by the United Nations,” Francis said.
Former Prime Minister of Cameroon Philemon Yang will take over as President of the 79th Session of the General Assembly on September 10.
Francis underlined that he expects India’s role to continue and be strengthened. “We know of course that India has an ambition to become a permanent member of the Security Council. Members will decide when they arrive at that point as to how to reform the Council and which members would be best placed to represent the current constellation of actors and the current distribution of power in the system.
“But for a democracy of 1.4 billion people, I’m sure no one overlooks the fact that India has a bright future in making a continued strong contribution to world affairs and in the realm of international affairs. So I imagine that pattern will continue to be demonstrated,” he said.
India has been at the forefront of years-long efforts to reform the 15-nation Security Council, saying the powerful UN body does not reflect current geopolitics realities and underscoring that it rightly deserves a permanent seat at the horse-shoe table. India last sat at the UN high table as a non-permanent member in 2021-22.
Francis added that India has also demonstrated “enormous commitment” as an advanced developing country in sharing its expertise with other developing countries in the Global South in the context of South-South cooperation, which he said is highly commendable on the part of the Government of India.
He said there’s a very keen interest, based on India’s own experience in the area of digitalisation and technology. “And understandably so” because digitalisation is the key to unlocking the potential that exists in countries.
“Digitalisation is as much an input to economic development as it is itself a contributor,” he said.
Francis has on several previous occasions lauded India’s use of digitalisation to alleviate poverty and bring millions of people into the formal economic system “simply through the use of a handset and a digitalisation model.” During his tenure as General Assembly President, Francis visited India in January this year, during which he held a bilateral meeting with External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar in New Delhi and also travelled to Jaipur and Mumbai. During the visit, his interactions with government officials, civil society members and think tanks focused on issues such as sustainability, multilateralism, accessibility, and digital public infrastructure.
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