Pak, North Korea not invited to global meet

India has not invited Pakistan and North Korea to attend the first global conference on consumer protection to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi next week, consumer affairs Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said.

The two-day Regional Conference on Consumer Protection will be held on October 26-27 and will see the participation of 23 countries, besides India, which is organising the event at the request of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

“We have not invited two countries — North Korea and Pakistan — for the conference even though they fall in the region of the countries we are inviting to the conference. We have invited others including China,” Paswan said on Friday. He, however, did not elaborate on the reason behind not inviting the two countries.

Ministry sources said the list of countries first sent to the government included the two names.

In the backdrop of the United Nations Revised Guidelines on Consumer Protection (UNGCP) 2015, the ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution and UNCTAD will organise the conference with the theme, ‘empowering consumers in new markets’ at Vigyan Bhavan, ministry officials said.

The objective of the conference is to share initiatives taken in connection with the implementation of the UN guidelines with regard to consumer protection.