UNGA president arrives in Pakistan on official visit

Kathmandu, 2021 May 28, Friday/DAWN United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Volkan Bozkir arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday for an official visit on the invitation of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

In a tweet, Bozkir said he had arrived in Islamabad after an “important and fruitful” official visit to Bangladesh.

“I look forward to my important meetings tomorrow in Islamabad,” he added. The UNGA president earlier also tweeted about his departure to Pakistan.

He had initially announced his visit to Pakistan in a statement issued last week, ahead of an emergency UNGA session on the Palestine issue.

“I will be received by President Arif Alvi and Prime Minister Khan and will also meet Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi,” he had tweeted. “I will give a speech at the National Defence University. I will also meet the UN country team serving in Pakistan.”

During his stay in Pakistan till Friday, the UNGA president will hold detailed talks with Qureshi and other political leaders on a wide range of political and socio-economic issues on the UN agenda, according to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs press release.

He will also deliver a speech on the ‘Importance of Multilateralism’.

The press release said, “The visit of the PGA (president of the General Assembly) would lend an opportunity to showcase Pakistan’s active contributions to multilateralism and the central role of the United Nations in international affairs.”

It added that “Pakistan remains committed to supporting the United Nations General Assembly for the realisation of shared objectives of maintaining international peace and security; economic and social development; promotion and protection of human rights; peaceful settlement of international disputes; and developing friendly relations among nations based on the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples, as enshrined in the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.”

Bozkir, who is the first Turkish national to preside over the UNGA, had also visited Pakistan in August 2020, before assuming the role of the UNGA head. He is a former diplomat and a senior politician.

Following his 39-year-long diplomatic career in the Turkish foreign service, Bozkir was elected thrice as a member of the Turkish parliament and has served as the chairperson of the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee and minister for European Union Affairs.