By NNN-APP,
New York : Pakistan on Tuesday called for closer cooperation among the members of Asian Group at the United Nations on issues of common interest in an effort to promote mutual benefit.
“The visibility and influence of our group at the UN is not commensurate with the ongoing bilateral and regional cooperation among the Asian countries outside the framework of the world body,” Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon told representatives of the 53-member group at a luncheon he hosted for them.
Speaking in Pakistan’s capacity as chair of the Asian Group, he regretted that the group mostly met at the time of elections to various UN bodies.
He proposed that the group also discuss other issues and adopted joint stands to re-enforce each other.
The Asian Group, Ambassador Haroon said, has over one-third of the world’s population and a major stakeholder in the global economy.
Six trillion dollars out of the thirteen trillion dollars held by the United States was directly contributed by Asian countries.
“The world is looking up to the Asia for pulling it out of its present economic morass,” he said. “We, as a Group, have the capacity, natural resources, manpower and a large talent pool; what we need is to develop and put this immense potential to use for the betterment of our peoples.”
Ambassador Haroon proposed setting up of an open-ended working group at experts’ level to identify areas of cooperation as well as ways and means to articulate their positions.
During the meeting, permanent representatives of Korea, India, Qatar and deputy permanent representatives of Iran and China also spoke.
They commended Haroon for holding the meeting and endorsed his proposal to convene a meeting of the experts to identify substantive issues of common interest.