PM Modi addresses 76th United Nations General Assembly

Prime Minister  addressed the high level segment of the 76th United Nations General Assembly on 25 September. The theme of General Assembly’s debate, was building resilience to hope to recovery from COVID-19, rebuild sustainably respond to the needs of the planet, respect the rights of people and revitalise the United Nations. Prior to his address, the Prime Minister was greeted by the President of the General Assembly, Mr. Abdulla Shahid.  President of the General Assembly had visited India on the 24th of July and he had at that time called the Prime Minister.The Prime Minister when he met the president of the General Assembly after he resumed office, he just resumed office recently, congratulated him on his presidency of hope. The Prime Minister’s address the General Assembly marked the culmination of a very successful, a very comprehensive tour of the United States. The Prime Minister was in Washington DC, where he held a bilateral meeting with the US President, President Joe Biden. He also met Vice President Kamala Harris. He participated in the meeting of the QUAD Leaders’ Summit, which was attended by the Prime Minister of Japan and Australia, hosted by the President of the United States. And he also separately had meetings with his counterparts from Japan and Australia. In Washington, he met a number of CEOs of major US corporates.

His address in the United Nations, focused on some important themes. The first theme, was that democracies can deliver, democracies have delivered. The Prime Minister spoke about an array of flagship programmes and initiatives in India that have delivered very successfully to hundreds of millions of our citizens, whether it is in the aspect of enabling them to enter into the banking sector by allowing people to open bank accounts, whether it is in terms of participating in health schemes that provide for quality health services to a very large number of  people, health insurance, low cost housing for millions of our citizens being converted from landless to land owners, as the Prime Minister said. Also very strong emphasis that the Prime Minister laid on this issue of technology, technology has delivered for India, we have used technology in very many areas of our developmental activity that has enabled us to reach out to people in all parts of the country, every segment of society.

The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), in New York, USA on September 25, 2021.

He also drew the synergy of India’s efforts in the health sector. Health is an overriding priority obviously in the general discourse in the United Nations at this point of time. The Prime Minister spoke about use of technology in the health sector especially with regard to the ability to immunise hundreds of millions of our citizens in the COVID-19, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, through the Co-win platform, which is one of the finest, most, and well-conceived digital platforms. When Co-win was introduced to the international community through the Co-win Global conclave, 142 countries participated, it has been put as an open source digital platform available to countries around the world. The Prime Minister also spoke about the success of Indian vaccination programme. 800 million plus citizens have already received vaccination doses, India is looking at accelerating this and the Prime Minister emphasised the fact that the success of this entire enterprise was also based on the organisational aspect of it, including Co-win, of course. The fact that India has today come out with cutting edge technologies, have indigenous vaccines, India also have developed a DNA vaccine which will be introduced for children, which is a touch vaccine and has come up with mRNA technology. Prime Minister referred to India as a manufacturing hub for vaccines for the entire world. In that context, he spoke of the fact that we had announced our decision to, again recommence exports of vaccines from the month of October. Again, this was extremely well received in the UN and the international community.

The Prime Minister spoke of global value chains in the context of Aatma Nirbhar Bharat, resilient supply chains that we are developing. Important emphasis was given on climate change in which the Prime Minister pointed out that India has unilaterally gone in for a 450 gigawatt target by 2030 and was ahead in terms of meeting our expectations in Paris Agreement. And that if we were to look at the gains that we would make in addressing the issue of climate change it is because we have to answer the future generations. The Prime Minister pointed out that it was important for us to ensure that we do the right thing now, so that our future generations don’t question the fact that we hadn’t done enough to make our planet both sustainable environmentally, and something that is enduring.

The Prime Minister talked about science based rational thinking, applied to development, science and technology have dictated how we can best provide development gains to as many of our people as possible as effectively and as cost effectively as possible also. He also talked about from that point of view, the development of incubators, the start-up culture, the importance and promise of innovation among the youth of India, the development of satellites, 75 satellites to commemorate India’s 75th anniversary of independence.

On international issues, the Prime Minister referred to the most pressing issue of today again, which is a topic of conversation of almost every head of state and government that has spoken at the United Nations, the situation in Afghanistan. He said that countries using terrorism as a tool should note that this is a double edged sword. One cannot think of encouragement to terrorism because that can come back to bite you. In the context of Afghanistan, the Prime Minister referred to the fact that the plight of women, children, minority should not be forgotten. That these basic human rights of people of Afghanistan are important. They need the help of the international community and it is incumbent on the international community to come forward to speak in one voice on some of these issues that are important to all of us. The Prime Minister did speak about the fact that we shouldn’t abuse our natural resources. This is a legacy for the future. This is a trusteeship of nature that has been bestowed on us, that our culture does, Indian culture and ethos is one that is close to nature, that we live in harmony with nature and that is something that’s important in today’s context of dealing with climate change, dealing with some of the environmental issues that we face globally.

He also spoke about the UN Security Council, in particular, India’s contribution to the issue of maritime security in the UN Security Council, and India’s presidency of the Security Council, a very successful presidency. This is the first time an Indian Prime Minister has chaired a meeting of the UN Security Council. This is also the first time India has or any country for that matter, has successfully steered a UN Security Council debate on the issue of maritime security and come up with the outcome document which today is being referred to by many countries as being the guiding principles on this issue. India also focused on the issue of technology and peacekeeping, the important issue of counter-terrorism. And in that context, of course, when we talk about international issues, issues that are important to the global community, the Prime Minister referred to the COVID-19 and its origins, the case of, ease of doing business, and it is important when we talk about the need for greater investment and technology flows, the issue of good governance. He called upon the UN to provide global order, global law and global values.

India by its own developmental paradigm and the success of its developmental efforts is really, in many senses, providing development to the entire world because India represents 1/6th of humanity, its development, progress and success is the word success. The second is the intention to share with the international community, best practices, experiences and in that context the Prime Minister referred to the global common good and the fact that India has always looked to seeing how it could both support and assist the larger global community in whatever India does.

PM’s address helped  to project India’s long standing growing credentials as a South-South development partner in the context of the India-UN Development Partnership fund. A number of countries in their addresses have referred to India, in particular, its development partners in the context of COVID-19 assistance, in the context of development programmes, India  continues to look forward to a very close partnership with countries all over the world in the furthering, in the extension of what is being done within our own country.

Source: MEA Media Briefing Transcript