UN General Assembly president's 3-day India visit begins on Sunday

President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Csaba Korosi will arrive in India on a three-day visit on Sunday, during which he is expected to discuss with his Indian interlocutors ways to deal with various challenges facing the globe.

It will be Korosi's first bilateral visit to any country since he assumed the UNGA presidency in September 2022, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said, announcing his trip.

Korosi is scheduled to witness the "Beating the Retreat" ceremony at the historic Vijay Chowk in the heart of New Delhi.

The president of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly (PGA) will hold talks with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on key multilateral and regional issues of mutual interest.

"The PGA's visit to India will be an opportunity to exchange views on global challenges that the United Nations is currently seized with," the MEA said in a statement.

"It would help reinforce India's abiding commitment to multilateralism, including through its ongoing G20 Presidency, and how it would address these global challenges meaningfully for a better future for the Global South," it added.

Korosi has already outlined five priorities for his UNGA presidency, which include standing firm on basic principles of the UN charter, making significant and measurable progress in sustainability transformation, enhancing the role of science in decision making and increasing solidarity to better endure new chapters of crises facing the world.

"Given the PGA's strong interest in India's expertise in water management and experience in SDGs (sustainable development goals), he would also be interacting with senior officials of NITI Aayog and India's G20 Presidency team to explore the scaling up of India's best practices," the MEA said.

On January 30, Korosi will deliver a public address at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) on his presidency theme of "Solutions through Solidarity, Sustainability and Science in the UN".

The UNGA president will travel to Bengaluru on January 31, where his engagements include an interaction with scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and a field visit to an IISc-led water conservation project.

Korosi is also expected to visit development projects in and around Bengaluru and interact with the UN-India country team, the MEA said.

The governor of Karnataka would be hosting a dinner in his honour, it added.