PM Modi to skip UNGA session in US this month amid raging tariff war

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not travel to New York this month to address the annual high-level session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

 

India will be represented by External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar who will address the session on September 27.

 

The 80th session begins on September 9, while the General Debate session is from September 23 to September 29. Brazil is the traditional first speaker of the session, followed by the US. 

 

US President Donald Trump will address the UN General Assembly on September 23, his first address to the UNGA in his second term in the White House.

 

According to the provisional list of speakers issued earlier, Modi was scheduled to address the session on September 26. Leaders of Israel, China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh will also address the session on the same day.

 

The revised list of speakers issued this week mentioned that India will be represented by ‘a minister’. 

 

Modi’s decision to skip the UNGA session comes amid the raging trade war with the US, after Trump imposed a whopping 50 per cent tariff on Indian goods, citing New Delhi's continued purchase of cheap Russian oil.

 

India has termed the US move “unfair, unjustified and unreasonable” and said New Delhi will take all actions necessary to protect its national interests.

 

Considered the busiest diplomatic season of the year at the United Nations Headquarters, the high-level session opens in September annually.

 

The session this year comes amid the continued Israel-Hamas war as well as the Ukraine conflict. The theme for the 80th session is 'Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights'.

India