By IANS,
New Delhi : Amid a raging diplomatic row between Israel and Iran over the attack on Israeli personnel, the president of the 66th United Nations General Assembly (PGA) begins a three-day visit to India Wednesday that will provide an opportunity to exchange views on a host of global issues.
Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, the PGA, will hold wide-ranging talks with External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Wednesday. He will call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Thursday. He will also visit The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI) here.
The visit will provide an opportunity to exchange views with him on several global challenges that the United Nations is currently seized with, the external affairs ministry said here ahead of the visit.
“It will also give us an opportunity to reiterate India’s abiding commitment to the principle of multilateralism and to the UN’s leadership in confronting these challenges,” he said.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has already condemned the attacks on Israeli embassy staffer in India and asked the authorities to investigate the matter and bring the perpetrators to justice.
India is expected to update Al-Nasser, a Qatari national, on the progress in the probe into the terror attack on an Israeli embassy car Monday in which the wife of an Israeli diplomat and three others were injured.
The visit takes place against the backdrop of a dramatic transfer of power in the Maldives and the festering crisis in Syria. These issues are expected to be discussed during the talks, said informed sources.
India, currently a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, is also expected to discuss the process of the UN reforms during the visit.