Foreign minister to meet US counterpart

WASHINGTON: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is expected to meet her US counterpart Rex Tillerson for the first time this week on the sideline of the annual UN general assembly and will attend a multilateral meeting chaired by President Donald Trump on the issue of reforming the world body.

Trump, a long-time critic of the UN, has backed a proposal by the UN secretary general António to streamline the secretariat. The changes are largely administrative and will not go into the larger reform of the UN Security Council.

India is supporting the effort as it is generally “pro-reform”. But it feels reform “needs to be much more broad-based,” Indian Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin said on Saturday, previewing India’s agenda for the coming general assembly.

“You cannot have reform only of the secretariat; reform cannot sidestep issue relating to governance of UN bodies”.

In short, India, a leading claimant to a permanent seat, would like to see progress on the expansion of the UNSC to include more permanent members.

Asked about a possible move by Pakistan to raise Kashmir at the UN, as it has in the past, Akbaruddin said Pakistan will be predictable if it did so, but it might be noted that the issue has not been discussed in the world body for the past 40 years.

The more substantive interaction will be Swaraj’s meeting with Tillerson, but officials said they were working on the date and time. The two leaders have spoken on phone before but this will be their first meeting, to be followed soon enough by their second, as part of the 2-by-2 dialogue.

India and the United States announced a new 2-by-2 talks format simultaneously involving the foreign and defence ministers of the two countries, replacing the earlier version that involved the foreign and commerce ministers.

The new dialogue is slated for later this month, to be hosted by India.

Swaraj has about 15-20 bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the UNGA, external affairs ministry spokesperson Ravish Kumar told reporters in New York. The minister is arriving on Sunday, and will attend the UN reforms meeting on Monday.

SUSHMA SWARAJ AND REX TILLERSON HAVE SPOKEN ON PHONE BEFORE BUT THIS WILL BE THEIR FIRST MEETING