Korosi also said that India & the UN have travelled together through thick and thin for 70 years
United Nations General Assembly President Csaba Korosi has hailed India's calls for peace in Ukraine and across the world.

"We are approaching the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine that caused suffering and displacement. A war that has unleashed an energy and food crisis across the globe. I commend India for your calls for peace in Ukraine and across the world," Korosi said while delivering the 40th Sapru House Lecture in New Delhi on Monday.

The President of the 77th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) Csaba Korosi, who is on his first visit to the country, went on to say that India has always been a staunch supporter of the United Nations.

"For seven decades we have traveled hand in hand, through thick and thin, and able to count on India in a multitude of issues from fighting polio to promoting equality, from championing democracy to the empowerment of women," he said during the lecture.

The UNGA President also commended India on its "generosity" in sending Covid-19 vaccines to over 150 countries and expressed appreciation for its role in UN peacekeeping operations.

During the course of the lecture, Korosi also pointed out that 2023 marks the midway point of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Agenda 2030 implementation. "In September's SDG Summit, we will have to turbocharge
SDGs delivery. We need honest accounts of where we are and where we are going, assess our successes and our failures, find our gaps and work to close them," he explained.

In this context, he commended India's flagship programmes to accomplish the SDGs at local, sub-national & national levels. Even in the remotest villages, the India-UN partnership to accelerate SDGs implementation is making a difference, bringing the SDG slogan of “leave no one behind” to life.

The UNGA President is visiting India from January 29-31 at the invitation of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. This is his first bilateral visit to any country since he assumed the UNGA Presidency in September 2022.

Korisi will also be traveling to Bengaluru on January 31, where his engagements include interaction with scientists at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and a field visit to an IISc-led water conservation project. He is also expected to visit developments projects in and around Bengaluru and interact with the UN India country team. The Governor of Karnataka would be hosting a dinner in his honour.

Annoucing the visit, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) had said on Saturday that the PGA’s visit to India will be an opportunity to exchange views on global challenges that the United Nations is currently seized with.

"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," the MEA said.

The MEA also pointed out that PGA Korosi has outlined five priorities for his UNGA Presidency:
i) Standing firm on basic principles of the United Nations Charter.
ii) Making significant and measurable progress in sustainability transformation.
iii) Aiming at integrated, systemic solutions.
iv) Enhancing role of science in decision-making.
v) Increasing solidarity to better endure new chapters of crises facing the world.