After celebrating Yoga Day in New York, the prime minister will then travel to Washington D.C., where he will receive a ceremonial welcome at the White House on June 22, and meet President Biden to continue their high-level dialogue, reports Asian Lite News
People belonging to more than 180 countries will participate in the Yoga Day event at the United Nations headquarters in New York which will be led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, sources said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi participates in the mass yoga demonstration at Rajpath (now Kartavya Path) on the occasion of International Yoga Day in New Delhi.
According to sources, this year’s Yoga Day event will be special since PM Modi will be leading the celebration on a large scale. The event will witness prominent people from all walks of life. He will be joined by people from more than 180 countries. Eminent personalities like Diplomats, leaders, artists, cultural icons, academicians, and entrepreneurs will be part of the event.
PM Modi will start his first state visit to the US on June 20. The visit will commence in New York where the Prime Minister will lead the celebrations of the International Day of Yoga at the United Nations Headquarters on June 21.
After celebrating Yoga Day in New York, the prime minister will then travel to Washington D.C., where he will receive a ceremonial welcome at the White House on June 22, and meet President Biden to continue their high-level dialogue.
President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will host a State Dinner in honour of the Prime Minister the same evening, according to a release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
PM Modi will at the invitation of US Congressional Leaders, including Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy and Speaker of the Senate Charles Schumer, address a Joint Sitting of the US Congress on June 22.
On June 23, the prime minister will be jointly hosted at a luncheon by US Vice President Kamala Harris and State Secretary Antony Bilnken. In addition to official engagements, the Prime Minister is scheduled to have several curated interactions with leading CEOs, professionals, and other stakeholders. He will also meet members of the Indian Diaspora. (ANI)
People wait to be evacuated near an airport in Omdurman, Sudan. (Xinhua)
The International Organisation for Migration said the conflict has displaced more than 8,43,000 people inside Sudan….reports Asian Lite News
The UN has released $22 million to aid people fleeing the hostilities in Sudan into four neighbouring countries, UN humanitarians said.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday that UN Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths, the relief chief, authorised the funds to help support about 2,50,000 people the UN Refugee Agency reported seeking safety in the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt and South Sudan.
Fighting between two military factions broke out in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum on April 15 and spread elsewhere in the country, Xinhua news agency reported.
OCHA said UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Chad, Violet Kakyomya, visited refugees and returnees at the border in Koufroun earlier on Friday.
The office said renewed violence in Sudan’s West Darfur state drove about 30,000 people to cross into Chad in the last week. Humanitarian agencies are working closely with the government to scale up the response.
The International Organisation for Migration said the conflict has displaced more than 8,43,000 people inside Sudan.
Since the fighting broke out, the WHO verified 34 attacks on healthcare, leading to eight deaths and 18 injuries, impacting 21 facilities.
WHO said it delivered medicines and medical supplies in Sudan to the State Ministry of Health and partners in the states of Aj Jazirah, Gedaref, Kassala, Northern State and River Nile. More than 30 ton of additional emergency health supplies are heading to Wad Madani from Port Sudan.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly on Ukraine, at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 28, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying/IANS)
Secret documents floating in social media and chat groups showed that the administration of President Joe Biden has been spying on UN officials as well as other international leaders, including US allies….writes Arul Louis
The UN has protested to the US against the spying on Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and other officials calling it an “interference” by Washington, according to spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
“The UN officially expressed to the host country its concern regarding recent reports that the communications of the Secretary-General and other senior UN officials have been the subject of surveillance and interference by the US government,” Dujarric said.
“The UN has made it clear that such actions are inconsistent with the obligations of the US enumerated in the UN charter and the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the UN,” he added.
Secret documents floating in social media and chat groups showed that the administration of President Joe Biden has been spying on UN officials as well as other international leaders, including US allies.
Jack Teixeira, a 21-year-old techie with a military organisation, has been arrested and charged with the leaks.
In the latest airing of the documents, The Washington Post reported that they included conversations between Guterres and Dujarric, as well as other officials from as recently as March.
In public, the Biden administration has made a show of opposing eavesdropping, putting sanctions on NSO Group, an Israeli company that developed the Pegasus software allegedly used by other governments for spying.
“The whole notion of using this type of technology against civil society, or regime critics, or journalists, or anybody like that through extrajudicial means is always concerning,” Dean Thomson said in 2001 when he was the Acting Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs amid allegations that India had used Pegasus emerged.
Pentagon seen from an airplane over Washington D.C., the United States. (Xinhua/Liu Jie/IANS)
India has denied the allegations.
When the first reports of the spying on Guterres emerged, he appeared to brush it off as something routine.
Dujarric said last week that Guterres “has been in politics and a public figure for quite some time. So he’s not surprised, I think, by the fact that people are spying on him and listening to his private conversations”.
But the UN lodged the formal protest as more reports of the US spying emerged with the potential to harm its relations with national leaders.
In one such revelation, the Post reported that Guterres was annoyed that Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister, Demeke Mekonnen wrote to him rejecting his plans to visit the country’s Tigray region where attempts were being made to end the civil war.
Earlier, the BBC reported that the documents included reports of conversations between Guterres and Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed in which she criticised Kenya’s President William Ruto.
The Post said that at least some of Guterres’s conversations were collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) which authorises spying on foreign targets without a warrant.
Some of the spying on Guterres relate to Ukraine, an area of intense concern to the Biden administration, with the leaked reports showing that Washington considered him soft on Russia.
The BBC reported that leaked documents claimed that Guterres accorded priority to protecting the Black Sea grain agreement that the UN along with Turkey worked out with Russia to allow foodgrain exports from Ukraine.
The deal was made to avert famines in some developing countries that relied on Ukrainian foodgrain and to stabilise international food prices.
“Our efforts, his efforts, have been to mitigate the impact of the war on the world’s poorest, and that means doing what we can to drive down the price of food and the price of grain and fertiliser worldwide,” Dujarric said.
One of the leaked documents revealed spying on a private conversation between Guterres and Miguel Graca, the director of his executive office when he reportedly expressed displeasure with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky’s request to visit his country.
Guterres, however, visited Ukraine three times since the Russian invasion, most recently last month when he reiterated categorically that “the position of the UN, which I have consistently expressed, is crystal clear: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a violation of the UN Charter and international law”.
The Post said that a document reported that Guterres told Dujarric that he was “pissed off” by a surprise International Women’s Day ceremony during his Kiev visit last month.
That ceremony without prior warning included the presentation of medals to Ukrainian soldiers and photographs and videos of the event were posted “that implied the secretary general was congratulating military personnel on one side of the Russia-Ukraine war”, The Post reported.
Teixeira, who posted the documents on the video gaming chat site Discord that found their way to Twitter, Telegram and 4Chan, was not even a member of the regular military, but a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, the equivalent of the Territorial Army in India.
Next on March 9, a roundtable on ‘A world we women and girls want: Technology enabled social and economic advancement’ is being scheduled…reports Asian Lite News
As chair of G20 and ahead of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Summit later this year in New York, India’s Permanent Mission to the United Nation will host roundtables at the UN headquarters, informed India at the United Nations on Monday.
A series of roundtables have been lined up for the next few months. The 2023 SDG Summit will be convened in September 2023, during the United Nations General Assembly high-level week. On Thursday, a roundtable titled ‘Gandhian Trusteeship: A panel discussion on Sustainable Lifestyles and Enduring Pace’ will be held.
Next on March 9, a roundtable on ‘A world we women and girls want: Technology enabled social and economic advancement’ is being scheduled.
On March 16, a roundtable on ‘Grassroots leadership and transformation: Charting the path of empowerment through technology and skill development’ will take place.
On April 14, a special event commemorating the birth anniversary of Dr BR Ambedkar is being planned.
“Focus will be on India’s growth story and achievements and how these might be scaled for the potential benefit of the global South,” India at the United Nations tweeted, attaching the schedule of the roundtables and other events.
Meanwhile, India added over 1,300 active tech startups last year, taking the total tally of active tech startups to 25,000-27,000, a Nasscom report said.
India continues to be the third largest tech startup ecosystem globally (after the US and China).
The country also added the second highest number of unicorns in the world, with over 23 added in the CY2022.
Simultaneously, the potential pipeline of unicorns expanded to over 170, growing at a pace equivalent to 2021, according to the report by the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), in collaboration with Zinnov.
“Despite the current downturns, opportunities abound for innovative companies that are leveraging emerging technologies to create actionable impact while prioritising business fundamentals over growth,” said Debjani Ghosh, President, Nasscom.
Despite the headwinds, while total funding in CY2022 dropped 24 per cent over 2021, the annual investments at $18.2 billion were higher than the pre-pandemic levels of $13.1 billion in 2019.
The year also witnessed a significant investment focus on non-unicorns and unique startups.
Almost 1,400 unique startups received funding in 2022, 18 per cent higher than in 2021. Among these, 47 per cent of startups raised their first round in 2022, the report mentioned.
Both early-stage ($5.9 billion in CY2022) and seed-stage ($1.2 billion) investments grew between 25-35 per cent over 2021.
In 2022, tech startups in the seed-stage secured 1,018 investments.
Late-stage investments bore the brunt with a decline of 41 per cent in deal sizes greater than $100 million, due to considerable correction in the global public markets.
India's Permanent Mission to the #UN is set to host a series of roundtables at the UN headquarters to highlight India’s growth story. #G20https://t.co/Efsk55yIPO
“What is remarkable is the ecosystem’s maturity, where founders are intentionally prioritising profitability over valuation and the investor trust, despite macroeconomic variables at play. This will pave the way for growth in 2023 and beyond,” said Pari Natarajan, CEO, Zinnov.
Tech startups are expected to continue increasing innovation and deep-tech adoption, particularly in areas related to SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) that require complex solutions, the report said. (ANI/IANS)
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks during an emergency special session of the UN General Assembly on Ukraine, at the UN headquarters in New York, on Feb. 28, 2022. (Xinhua/Wang Ying/IANS)
The Charter itself has paralysed the UN by conferring veto powers for permanent members at the Security Council, which alone can act, a report by Arul Louis
Paralysed by its own Charter and structure, the world organisation that is charged with preventing wars confronts an existential challenge from Russias ongoing invasion of Ukraine.
When Russia, a UN Security Council Permanent Member, sent its troops into a smaller neighbour defying the UN Charter and all norms of international relations on February 24, 2022, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had said: “This is the saddest moment in my tenure as Secretary-General of the UN.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) meets with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Kiev on April 28, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidential Office/Handout via Xinhua/IANS)
Beyond sadness from the betrayal and the pain inflicted on nations around the world, especially the poorest, the war drives into the very foundation of the UN built nearly 78 years ago.
Guterres warned this month, “I fear the world is not sleepwalking into a wider war, I fear it is doing so with its eyes wide open”.
And the invasion has raised questions about the UN’s resolve “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”, as the first sentence of its Charter declares.
Yet the Charter itself has paralysed the UN by conferring veto powers for permanent members at the Security Council, which alone can act.
Russia’s vetoes have mired the Council in the morass of inaction renewing calls for its reform.
Describing the situation, General Assembly President Csaba Korosi said: “The Security Council — the main guarantor of international peace and security – has remained blocked, unable to fully carry out its mandate.”
“Growing numbers are now demanding its reform,” he said noting that at the Assembly’s High-Level Week in September, “one-third of world leaders underscored the urgent need to reform the Council — more than double the number in 2021”.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at a meeting in Petersburg in 2019. (File Photo: UN)
While the reform process — in which India has a special interest as an aspirant for a permanent seat –that has itself been stymied for nearly two decades has come to the fore, it is not likely to happen any time soon.
But the General Assembly, which does not have the enforcement powers of the Council, has used the imbroglio to set a precedent forcing permanent members when they wield their veto to face it and explain their action.
Russia appeared before the Assembly to answer for its vetoes while facing a barrage of criticism.
The Assembly also revived a seldom-used action under the 1950 Uniting for Peace Resolution of calling for an emergency special session when the Council fails in its primary duty of maintaining peace and security.
It passed a resolution in March demanding that Russia “immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw all of its military forces from the territory of Ukraine within its internationally recognised borders”.
It received 141 votes — getting more than two-thirds of the votes 193 required for it — while India was among the 35 countries that abstained.
This, as well as the subsequent three passed last year ultimately were but an exercise in moral authority with no means to enforce it.
A proposal made by Mexico and France in 2015 calling on permanent members to refrain from using their vetoes on issues involving them also has been getting a re-airing– but to no avail.
Russia’s Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenza vetoes the resolution at the UN Security Council.
India, which was a member of the Council last year was caught in the middle of the polarisation at the UN, both at the Council and the Assembly, because of its dependence on Russian arms and the support it had received at crucial times in the Security Council from its predecessor the Soviet Union.
India abstained at least 11 times on substantive resolutions relating to Ukraine in both chambers of the UN, including resolutions at the Council sponsored by Moscow.
India faced tremendous pressure from the West to join in voting on resolutions against Russia and openly take a definitive stand condemning Moscow.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar told the Security Council in September 2022: “As the Ukraine conflict continues to rage, we are often asked whose side we are on. And our answer, each time, is straight and honest. India is on the side of peace and will remain firmly there.”
And while keeping the semblance of neutrality while voting, India came closest to taking a stand in support of Ukraine — and by inference against Russia — when he said, “we are on the side that respects the UN Charter and its founding principles”.
Now out of the Council, New Delhi’s profile has been lowered and it also does not have to publicly display its tight-rope walk as often, although it may yet have to do it again this week when the Assembly is likely to have a resolution around the invasion’s anniversary.
The pain of the invasion is felt far beyond the borders of Ukraine.
(Photo: Instagram/zelenskiy)
Guterres said: “The Russian invasion of Ukraine is inflicting untold suffering on the Ukrainian people, with profound global implications.”
The fallout of the war has set back the UN’s omnibus development goals.
More immediately, several countries came to the brink of famine and the spectre of hunger still stalks the world because of shortages of agricultural input, while many countries, including many developed nations, face severe energy and financial problems.
The war shut off exports of food grains from Ukraine and limited exports from Russia, the two countries that have become the world’s food baskets.
Besides depriving many countries of food grains, the shortages raised global prices.
The one victory for the UN has been the Black Sea agreement forged with Russia, Ukraine and Turkey in July to allow safe passage for ships carrying foodgrains from Ukrainian ports.
Guterres’s spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said that in about 1,500 trips by ships so far, “more than 21.3 million tonnes of grain and food products have been moved so far during the initiative, helping to bring down global food prices and stabilising markets”.
Csaba Korosi, president of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). (Xinhua/Wang Ying/IANS)
A UN outfit, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has also made an impact during the war, working to protect nuclear facilities in Ukraine that were occupied by Russia’s forces while shelling around them.
It said that it has managed to station teams of safety and security experts at Ukraine’s nuclear power plants and at Chernobyl, the site of the 1986 disaster “to help reduce the risk of a severe nuclear accident during the ongoing conflict in the country”.
Caption for MyanmarUNSC.jpg: India's Permanent Representative Ruchira Kamboj preisdes over a meeting of the United Nations Security Council meeting on Myanmar on Wednesday, December 21, 2023. (Photo Source: UN)
This is the first time since 1975 that India has become Chair of the Commission for Social Development…reports Asian Lite News
India has been elected chair of the 62nd session of the UN Commission for Social Development (CSocD).
Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj on Thursday accepted the chairpersonship at the UN Headquarters in New York . This is the first time since 1975 that India has become Chair of the Commission for Social Development, according to a release issued by the Indian Permanent Mission to the UN.
The Commission for Social Development is a functional commission of the Economic and Social Council. The Commission serves as the primary inter-governmental body to deliberate upon and strengthen international cooperation on social development issues, according to the official release.
The 62nd session’s theme is “Fostering Social Development and Social Justice through Social Policies to accelerate Progress on the Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and to achieve the overarching goal of poverty eradication”.
The theme emphasises the important connection between social development and social justice as fundamentals to achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
The Commission for Social Development’s main responsibility is to review, on a periodic basis, issues related to the follow-up and implementation of the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and the Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development and the outcome of the twenty-fourth special session of the General Assembly.
Speaking at a recent UN briefing, India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ruchira Kamboj said that as the chair of the G20, India will continue to engage proactively with the global south refactoring the priorities of the south into the G20 process.
“We greatly appreciate this briefing on your priorities for the resumed segment of the 77th session (of UNGA)… To say that we are perhaps witnessing the most difficult phase since the Second World War is not an exaggeration but a reality. The road ahead is, therefore, difficult and challenging. As you rightly pointed as members of the United Nations we have an onerous responsibility. We need to work collectively in a collaborative manner to find sustainable solutions to the development challenges,” she said.
Ruchira Kamboj said India’s philosophical ethos sees the world as one large interconnected family. (ANI)
GENEVA, April 3, 2018 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers a speech during the High-Level Pledging Event for the Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen at Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, April 3, 2018. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres applauded Tuesday international pledges of more than 2 billion U.S. dollars in 2018 for the three-year-old crisis in Yemen. (Xinhua/Xu Jinquan/IANS)
India’s contribution was received on Friday according to the UN. India’s share is assessed at 1.044 per cent of the total budget of $3.217 billion…writes ARUL LOUIS
India has paid its 2023 annual contribution of $30.54 million to the UN budget, according to a UN spokesperson.
India was among the 43 countries on its “honour roll” so far for having paid their assessments to the budget, Stephane Dujarric, the Spokesperson for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said on Monday.
India’s contribution was received on Friday according to the UN. India’s share is assessed at 1.044 per cent of the total budget of $3.217 billion.
Although that works out to $33.592 million, it is given a credit of $3.052 million that the UN collects from its Indian employees in lieu of the income taxes they would have had to pay.
Abyei, Jan 15 (ANI): A contingent of Indian women peacekeepers, the country’s largest single unit of female troops in a UN mission since 2007, arrived in Abyei to begin its deployment with the United Nations Interim Security Force, on Sunday. (ANI Photo)
The rate of budget assessments for each of the 193 member countries is worked out by a complex formula that is based on gross national income (which is the gross domestic product plus income from abroad), debt burden and an adjustment for per capita income using the principle of the “capacity to pay”.
Although India boasts of being the world’s fifth-largest economy, its assessment is brought down by the low per capita income diminishing its “capacity to pay”.
This puts its assessment lower than some fellow developing countries like Brazil with an assessment of 2.013 per cent or Mexico at 1.221 per cent.
The assessment for the US is 22 per cent, which is the highest that can be set for a country, working out to $707.897 million.
China comes next with an assessment of 15.254 per cent or 490.83 million.
Britain, the size of whose economy was overtaken by India, pays $140.775 million or 4.375 per cent to be the fifth-largest contributor with Japan being the third and Germany the fourth.
In addition to the main UN budget, countries also have to make contributions based on similar formulas to the budgets for capital, peace-keeping and international tribunals.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed addresses a hybrid press briefing at the UN headquarters in New York, Sept. 28, 2020. (Xinhua/Wang Ying/IANS)
The global financial system is failing developing countries, and economies are failing to serve the vast majority of their citizens — except for a small elite, said Amina Mohammed..reports Asian Lite News
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said that sustainable development is the only way to durable peace.
“There is only one route to durable peace, to the peace that withstands the crises of our times. It is the route of sustainable development,” she on Thursday told an open debate of the UN Security Council on investment in people to enhance resilience against complex challenges, Xinhua news agency reported.
“Inclusive, sustainable development that leaves no one behind is essential in its own rights. It is also humanity’s ultimate prevention tool. It is the only reliable tool that can break through cycles of instability to address the underlying drivers of fragility and humanitarian need,” she said.
Investments in development, in people, in human security, in shared prosperity are also investments in peace. And yet, investments in recent years have fallen far short, the deputy UN chief warned.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, many millions more people — over 200 million more — have fallen into poverty. An additional 820 million people are going hungry. More women and girls are having their rights trampled on — erased from public life and constrained in private life, she noted.
The global financial system is failing developing countries, and economies are failing to serve the vast majority of their citizens — except for a small elite, she added.
“These challenges are not just development issues. They pose a threat to our peaceful coexistence,” she said. “Development deficits drive grievance. They corrode institutions. They allow hostility and intolerance to flourish. When we fail to meet the development needs of our time, we fail to secure peace for our future.”
The triple planetary crisis of biodiversity loss, climate change and pollution does not merely threaten the environment. It also threatens to unleash destructive forces that drive wedges in societies, erode social cohesion and ignite instability, she warned.
The report pointed out that tightening global financial conditions, coupled with a strong dollar, exacerbated fiscal and debt vulnerabilities in developing countries…reports Asian Lite News
World output growth is projected to decelerate from an estimated 3.0 per cent in 2022 to 1.9 per cent in 2023, marking one of the lowest growth rates in recent decades, according to a UN report.
The UN World Economic Situation and Prospects 2023 report, launched on Wednesday, predicted global growth to moderately pick up to 2.7 per cent in 2024, as some macroeconomic headwinds are expected to begin to subside next year, Xinhua news agency reported.
Amid high inflation, aggressive monetary tightening and heightened uncertainties, the current downturn has slowed the pace of economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis, threatening several countries — both developed and developing — with the prospects of recession in 2023, the report said.
It said growth momentum significantly weakened in the US, the European Union and other developed economies in 2022, adversely impacting the rest of the global economy through a number of channels.
In the US, gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to expand by only 0.4 per cent in 2023 after an estimated growth of 1.8 per cent in 2022, the report said.
Growth in China is projected to moderately improve in 2023. With the government adjusting its Covid policy in late 2022 and easing monetary and fiscal policies, China’s economic growth is forecast to accelerate to 4.8 per cent in 2023, according to the report.
It pointed out that tightening global financial conditions, coupled with a strong dollar, exacerbated fiscal and debt vulnerabilities in developing countries.
Most developing countries saw a slower job recovery in 2022 and continue to face considerable employment slack, the report said.
It warned that slower growth, coupled with elevated inflation and mounting debt vulnerabilities, threatens to further set back hard-won achievements in sustainable development, deepening the already negative effects of the current crises.
In 2022, the number of people facing acute food insecurity more than doubled compared to 2019, reaching almost 350 million. A prolonged period of economic weakness and slow income growth would not only hamper poverty eradication, but also constrain countries’ ability to invest in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) more broadly, the report stressed.
“The current crises are hitting the most vulnerable the hardest — often through no fault of their own. The global community needs to step up joint efforts to avert human suffering and support an inclusive and sustainable future for all,” Li Junhua, UN undersecretary-general for economic and social affairs, said in a statement on the release of the report.
The report called for governments to avoid fiscal austerity which would stifle growth and disproportionately affect the most vulnerable groups, affect progress in gender equality and stymie development prospects across generations.
It recommended reallocation and reprioritisation of public expenditures through direct policy interventions that will create jobs and reinvigorate growth, noting this will require strengthening of social protection systems, ensuring continued support through targeted and temporary subsidies, cash transfers, and discounts on utility bills, which can be complemented with reductions in consumption taxes or custom duties.
“The pandemic, the global food and energy crises, climate risks and the looming debt crisis in many developing countries are testing the limits of existing multilateral frameworks,” the report said. “International cooperation has never been more important than now to face multiple global crises and bring the world back on track to achieve the SDGs.”
Additional SDG financing needs in developing countries vary by source, but are estimated to amount to a few trillion US dollars per year, according to the report.
Stronger international commitment, the report said, is urgently needed to expand access to emergency financial assistance, to restructure and reduce debt burdens across developing countries, and scale up SDG financing.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks to the media at the launch of a report by Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance over the Ukraine crisis, at the UN headquarters in New York, April 13, 2022. (Xinhua/Xie E/IANS)
Last week, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the flashpoint holy site Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem, denounced by the Palestinian side as a provocation…reports Asian Lite News
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for preserving the status quo of Jerusalem’s holy sites and the two-state solution to the Palestine-Israel issue.
“I had the occasion to reaffirm that we must preserve the status quo of the holy sites in Jerusalem and that it is essential to preserve the two-state solution to avoid any initiative that might put at risk the two-state solution,” Guterres told reporters after meeting with the Permanent Representatives of the Extended Troika of the Arab Group at the UN headquarters in New York.
Last week, Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the flashpoint holy site Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem, denounced by the Palestinian side as a provocation, reports Xinhua news agency.
The compound, known to the Jewish people as the Temple Mount, is sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
Guterres added that the UN “recognise the right of Israel to exist and to live in security”.
At the same time, “the construction of settlements, the evictions, destruction of homes are creating an enormous anger and frustration not only of the Palestinian people but further afield”.
Answering a follow-up question regarding the two-state solution, Guterres said, “what I believe is that there is no plan B, that to reject the possibility of a two-state solution is something that would undermine forever the possibilities of peace in the Middle East”.
The Palestinians want to establish a Palestinian state on the territories seized by Israel in 1967, including the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem as its capital.
