UNITED NATIONS- Leaders from around the world will gather in New York this week to discuss a host of issues like the situation created by Islamic State militants’ attacks in Iraq and Syria, the rapid spread of deadly Ebola virus in Africa and framing of a post-2015 economic and social development agenda.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will arrive in New York on Wednesday (September 24), the day the UN General Assembly is going to begin its week-long debate on the issues of international peace and security.
During his stay, the PM will hold discussions with the key world leaders on wide-ranging issues and address the 193-member General Assembly on September 26. He will also participate in a summit meeting the same day on UN peacekeeping which Pakistan is co-hosting.
A White House spokesman said the summit on UN peacekeeping is aimed at underscoring the international community’s commitment to strengthening peacekeeping to address contemporary threats.
“The event will bring together top peacekeeping troop contributors as well as top peacekeeping financial contributors,” the spokesman said. Besides PM Nawaz Sharif, the summit is co-hosted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Rwandan President Paul Kagame, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajid and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
“A number of countries are expected to use the summit to announce new commitments to peacekeeping, including direct contributions of troops and police, as well as new capacity-building efforts to strengthen peacekeepers worldwide.”
Pakistan is among the top troop contributors to UN peacekeeping forces.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be attending the summit as he will arrive late to participate in the annual session of the UN General Assembly.
Meanwhile, UN Chief Ban Ki-moon said more than 140 heads of state or government will attend the assembly’s annual general debate which will begin on Wednesday and end o September 30. He noted an unusually large number of serious conflicts in Middle East, Africa and Ukraine. “The world is facing multiple crises,” Ban told reporters.
“All have featured atrocious attacks on civilians, including children. All have dangerous sectarian, ethnic or tribal dimensions. And many have seen sharp divisions within the international community itself over the response,” he said.
The UN officials and delegates say the top issue for Western and Arab leaders is the rampage of Islamic State militants who are blamed for a wave of sectarian violence, beheadings and massacres of civilians.
“Together, we will address the horrendous violence in Syria and Iraq where conflict and governance failures have provided a breeding ground for extremist groups,” Ban said.
US President Barack Obama is expected to use the UN podium on Wednesday to call upon more countries to join his coalition of more than 40 nations to prevent Islamic State militants from expanding their territory. The United States has been bombing IS targets in Iraq for the past month, but it has yet to bomb Syria.
On Friday, Kerry told a special meeting of the Security Council that Iran could play a role in helping tackle IS, an apparent shift in the US position. Both Iran and the United States have ruled out military cooperation. On Wednesday, Obama will chair a rare summit meeting of the UN Security Council on the problem of foreign fighters. He last chaired a council summit in 2009 on eradicating nuclear weapons.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the council plans to adopt a resolution demanding countries prevent and suppress recruitment and travel of foreign fighters to join militant groups like IS by ensuring it is a serious criminal offence under domestic laws. Foreign fighters have a large presence in IS.
The UN member states will also tackle the Ebola crisis in West Africa. Obama and other leaders will attend a high-level meeting on the worsening hemorrhagic fever outbreak that has devastated Liberia, Sierra Leone and other countries in the region.
The meeting comes just after the Security Council declared Ebola a threat to international peace and security and established the first-ever UN mission dedicated to tackling a public-health threat.
Since the current outbreak was first detected in March, Ebola has infected at least 5,357 people, according to the World Health Organisation, mostly in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. It has also spread to Senegal and Nigeria. The virus has killed an estimated 2,630 people.
Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was due to address the General Assembly, but she canceled her trip to New York because of the Ebola crisis.
There will also be high-level side meetings on conflicts in Syria, Libya, South Sudan, Ukraine, Central African Republic, Mali, Israeli-Palestinian problem and the UN war on poverty.