Swaraj uses UN stage to push India's goals

New Delhi: India effectively used the 72nd United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session to broad-base her canvas on foreign relations, particularly pinning down Pakistan on cross-border terrorism.

Utilising the global stage, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who represented the Indian delegation at UNGA, had about 40 bilateral and 13 multilateral meetings during her week-long visit.

New Delhi effectively articulated India's position on various issues, including climate change, terrorism, people-centric migration and peacekeeping.

The historic speech of Swaraj at the 72nd UN General Assembly was applauded from all quarters as she ripped apart Pakistan on cross-border terrorism and asked 'rouged' neighbour to focus on development.

In her speech, that was also hailed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and her cabinet colleagues, the External Affairs Minister had asked Pakistani leaders to introspect as to why India is recognised as a global IT superpower while the neighbour is infamous as the "pre-eminent export factory

for terror".

Swaraj started her official tour with a trilateral meeting with her American and Japanese counterparts Rex Tillerson, and Taro Kono respectively. She also held meetings with Ivanka Trump, the advisor and daughter of US president Donald Trump and Prime Ministers of Bangladesh and Bhutan on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting.

During her meeting with Foreign Minister of Chile Heraldo Muñoz, Swaraj discussed bilateral cooperation issues, while issues of mutual interest were discussed with Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, the Foreign Minister of Oman and Mohammad Javad Zarif, Foreign Affairs Minister of Iran on September 23.

Strengthening the ties between Indian and Arab countries, Swaraj held talks with Ahmad Abdul Gheit, the Secretary-General of the Arab League.

A bilateral meeting was also held between Swaraj and her Algerian counterpart Abdelkader Messahel.

Swaraj held talks with the foreign ministers of Tunisia, Bahrain, Latvia, the United Arab Emirates and Denmark.

In her meeting with the UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the two sides discussed measures to attract more foreign direct investment from the UAE into India. The UAE is India's strategic partner. The bilateral trade between India and the UAE is worth dollar 52.8 billion.