NEW YORK: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is attending the opening session of the 79th United Nations General Assembly being held today marking the beginning of the annual gathering of world leaders.

He is accompanied by Defense Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar, Minister for Education and Professional Training Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui Special Assistant Tariq Fatemi and Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN Munir Akram.

He will attend the reception given by the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres for heads of member states, where the prime minister will have informal meetings with heads of various countries, Radio Pakistan reported. 

On the sidelines of the 79th Session of the UNGA, PM Shehbaz met Maldives President Dr Muizzu. During the interaction, PM Shehbaz reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to enhancing cooperation with the Maldives in the fields of trade, tourism, education, investment and climate change.

During the meeting, both leaders underscored the deep-rooted ties between Pakistan and the Maldives.

Both leaders agreed on the need for increased people-to-people exchanges and collaborative efforts to promote economic growth and sustainable development in their respective countries.

The two sides also recognised the shared responsibility of South Asian nations to work together for peace, prosperity, and stability of the region.

Earlier, Pakistan called the UN’s Pact for the Future, which is aimed at transforming the multilateral system, an expression of the international community’s collective determination to respond to global challenges, and called for upholding the commitments made in the game-changing document.

“The Pact will be transformative only if we translate the commitments undertaken into concrete action,” Defence Minister Khawaja Asif told the Summit of the Future on its second and concluding day.

At the outset of his remarks, he emphatically warned that “no sustainable development can take place till tragedies like Gaza are perpetuated by the developed world.”

Sunday’s comprehensive pact, which world leaders approved by consensus, aims to strengthen global governance and tackle key challenges facing humanity, including sustainable development, international peace, and technological innovation, youth and future generations and transforming global governance. It also proposes detailed action plans to address these challenges.

“For the over 100 developing countries, the Pact offers an opportunity to revitalise development and to reform the unequal international financial and economic system,” he said in the iconic hall of the UN General Assembly with heads of state and others in this high-level delegates arrayed in front of him.

In this regard, Asif underscored the need for bridging the $4 trillion SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) financing gap by fulfilling the Official Development Assistance (ODA) commitments; implementing the UN Secretary-General’s SDG Stimulus proposal; re-channeling 50% of the unused 2021 allocation of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs); delivering a more ambitious International Development Association (IDA) by ensuring a robust $100 billion replenishment; enlarging lending by the multilateral development banks; and lowering borrowing costs for developing countries.

The defence minister also called for ensuring global economic equity by improving the representation of developing countries in international financial institutions; reviewing the sovereign debt architecture to make it more equitable; adopting an equitable international tax regime; and reforming the WTO (World Trade Organization) to serve as a vehicle for export expansion and development, through preferential treatment for developing countries and avoidance of new environmental protectionism.

“The UN, by virtue of its universal membership and mandate, remains an indispensable platform to propel and monitor implementation of these commitments.”

He also called for bridging the North-South divide and preventing an East-West fragmentation of the digital space. “We must ensure equitable data governance. And, we must capture and control the power of Artificial Intelligence.”

The defence minister emphasised the need to find ways to ease great power tensions and build a new consensus to promote general and complete disarmament, including nuclear disarmament, non-proliferation, and conventional arms control.

“The panoply of measures envisaged in the UN Charter must be activated to resolve new and old disputes, including the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” Asif added.

Referring to the UN Security Council’s frequent failure, the defence minister said that adding more permanent members — as demanded by India and its allies — will multiply the prospects of its paralysis. “Instead,” he added, “the Council should be adequately enlarged and made more representative by adding more non-permanent, elected members to the Council.”

He said the structure of world order, envisaged in the UN Charter, must not be eroded by the equation of States with non-state entities.

“It is only through the decisions and actions of States that we will ensure that succeeding generations enjoy a future of peace, progress, and prosperity.”

— Additional input from APP...