Consultations at UN begins on Pakistan initiative for debt relief

Ambassadors from over 22 countries, representing developing and developed countries from all regions held a first round of consultations on Prime Minister Imran Khan's initiative for Global Initiative for Debt Relief at their virtual meeting in New York.

Senior officials of the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund ( IMF), the World Bank and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development ( UNCTAD) also participated in the meeting, which was chaired by Pakistan's UN Ambassador Munir Akram.

Last month, the prime minister appealed to the international community, the UN Secretary- General Antonio Guterres and the international financial institutions to "launch an initiative to give debt relief to developing countries" to help in their fight against the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Monday's meeting was also addressed by the President of the UN General Assembly, Tijjani Muhammad- Bande, and UN Deputy SecretaryGeneral Amina Mohammed.

In his opening remarks to the meeting, read out by Ambassador Akram, Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, stressed the need for addressing the debt distress of many developing countries, which has a potential to become a debt crisis.

He said that without international support, many developing countries would not have the fiscal space to respond to the current health and economic crisis.

The foreign minister hoped that the informal consultations would evolve agreement on some meaningful measures and practical actions to enable the developing countries to recover quicker and better from the current crisis and achieve sustainable development.

Thanking Pakistan for convening the consultations and welcoming PM Imran Khan's initiative, the General Assembly president called for moving quickly on debt and concessional finance to support the most vulnerable people around the world.