Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday omitted the reference to Pakistan and underlined that the only message from the world’s largest democracy to the General Assembly was one of “harmony and peace”.
PM Modi’s speech covers diverse issues such as climate change, sustainable development goals and assistance for small islands, which his Pakistan counterpart Imran Khan has promised to focus on, Kashmir “Like never before”.
This is the first time that Pakistan has not been mentioned in an Indian address — by the prime minister or the external affairs minister — in the General Assembly address in eight years. The only time India omitted Pakistan from its speech in the last decade was in 2011.
Pakistan figured 10 times in 2010, five times in 2013, five times in 2014 and three, six, 15 and 12 times over the next four years.
PM Modi, however, did get his message across. He spoke in some detail about terrorism, reminding the world leaders that the lack of unanimity among them was hurting everyone.
Narendra Modi said, “We believe that terrorism is the biggest challenge not for any one country but for the whole world and humanity.”
He said, “The voice to raise the world to alert the world with vigilance and resentment against terrorism”.
