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UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres visit India beginning Tuesday to commemorate India’s 75-year partnership with the UN, during which India’s contribution to combating climate change through lifestyle changes will be highlighted, according to his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
According to India’s Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi, Guterres will begin his visit by paying tributes to the victims of the 26/11 terror attacks in Mumbai by a Pakistan-based group, which claimed the lives of more than 175 people.
The ministry also stated that Guterres will “pay floral tributes at the Statue of Unity” in Gujarat, which is a 182-metre statue of Sardar Vallabhai Patel, who oversaw the unification of India out of the British-administered territories and the princely states under British overlordship at the country’s independence.
According to the MEA, Guterres will speak at the United Nations on “India @75: UN-India Partnership: Strengthening South-South Cooperation” in Mumbai.
This will be Guterres’ second trip to India as Secretary General, and his first in his second term.
Guterres will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar during his three-day visit, according to Dujarric.
According to the MEA, Jaishankar is expected to discuss with Guterres issues of “global concern” as well as deepening New Delhi’s engagement with the UN when India assumes the presidency of the G20, a group of the world’s largest economies.
Despite the fact that India was a founding member of the UN in 1945 while still a British colony, it is commemorating its participation in the UN after independence.
Guterres will visit a model project site, recently designated India’s first solar-powered village, to see “how solar rooftops installed on more than 1,300 rural houses are improving lives in the community,” according to a spokesperson.
He will also visit the Sun Temple, an 11th century structure built by the Chalukyas in homage to the Sun god, while in Modhera village, which is a model of solar power use, according to the MEA.
Gutteres will join Modi at the Ekta Nagar in Gujarat’s Kevadia to launch the Mission LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment), according to the MEA.
Mission LiFE’s “central idea reflects India’s ethos of respect for Mother Nature and aims at piloting a focused programme that will mobilize 1 billion Indians to become pro-planet people (3P), who will practice simple environment and climate-friendly behavior/actions in their daily lives to promote a shared commitment to protect our planet,” according to the MEA, calling it India’s “signature initiative” for combating climate change.
Dujarric stated that Guterres will travel from India to Vietnam to celebrate the country’s 45th anniversary of UN membership.
Source:OCN
