President to attend string of summits, hold talks with world leaders in New York

packed schedule awaits President Asif Ali ZardariAsif Ali Zardari who arrives in New York on Sunday to lead a strong Pakistani delegation to the 64th session of U.N. General Assembly, which is set to deal with some pressing global challenges. The President will attend a string of summit-level conferences and hold talks with his counterparts from around the world as also with top United States and United Nations officials besides attending a ceremony in which Mohtarma Benazir BhuttoBenazir Bhutto will be posthumously honoured, says a press release issued here.

The President’s delegation will include Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin, Interior Minister Rehman MalikRehman Malik, Azad Jammu and Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Muhammad Yaqoob Khan, National Reconstruction Bureau Chairman Asim Hussain, Environment Minister Hameedullah Jan Afridi and Awami National Party Chief Asfandyar Wali Khan as well as senior government officials.

Briefing Pakistani newsmen, Pakistan’s U.N. Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon said Friday that the President’s programme had to be fixed in a brief period between Eid-ul-Fitr and the G20 summit in Pittsburgh of rich countries on Sept 24-25.

“The schedule is very, very tight,” he said.

The President will be co-hosting with US President Barack ObamaBarack Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon BrownGordon Brown a summit-level meeting of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan (FODP) aimed at helping the nation tide over economic and security challenges it faces.

The Sept. 24 meeting on the sidelines of the assembly session will mark the first anniversary of the launch of the initiative that President Zardari took in September 2008.

The invitees include: Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, European Commission, European Union, United Nations, Asian Development Bank, Islamic Development Bank and World Bank.

On Thursday, UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon, who will attend the meeting, called for supporting President Zardari’s government as it fights terrorism.

The President’s bilateral meetings will be with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez, Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkende, US Secretary of Defence Robert GatesRobert Gates, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh RasmussenAnders Fogh Rasmussen, US Secretary of State Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayid Al Nahyan. The US Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke will also be meeting the President.

Ambassador Haroon said that efforts were being made to accommodate more heads of state/government wishing to meet the President.

The President will also attend a debate at the Clinton Global Initiative, which brings together world leaders to take action on global challenges. The initiative was launched by former US President Bill ClintonBill Clinton in 2007.

President Zardari will address the U.N. General Assembly on Sept 25 and participate in a Summit-level meeting of major troop and police contributing countries being convened by President Obama for a review of UN peacekeeping operations.

With around 11,000 troops, Pakistan is one of the largest troop contributors, constituting 11% of the total UN Peace keeping force.

“We welcome the initiative of President Obama in convening a summit - level conference of troop contributing countries,” Haroon said. “We hope this conference will go a long way in creating a better understanding about the role of peacekeeping”.

More than twenty heads of State/government and representatives from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Ghana, France, United Kingdom, the United States, Russia and China are likely to attend the conference.

The objective of the conference is to get the input of troop contributing countries on reforms and upgradation of UN peacekeeping activities.

The President will be the keynote speaker at the Fourth Global Creative leadership Summit of Louise Blouin Foundation where Ms. Bhutto along with Matti VanhanenMatti Vanhanen, a former prime minister of Finland, Bruce Mau, a creative Director and Dr Craig Venter, a leading Scientist known for decoding the genome of the first living organism, will be conferred awards at a ceremony to be attended by several world leaders.

Haroon said that the President had designated the Environment Minister to represent Pakistan at the high-level meeting on Climate Change, convened by the UN chief on Sept. 22. The Secretary General, who gives top priority to the subject, has been pushing world leaders to “seal the deal” on a greenhouse gas emissions treaty at a climate change conference later this year.

Meanwhile, the Azad Kashmir Prime minister will raise the Kashmir at a meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to be held on margins of the assembly.