Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar departed Islamabad for New York on Sunday to participate in the high-level week of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), the Foreign Office said.
Dar will accompany Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif during the UN engagements and is scheduled to remain in New York from September 21 to 25. The Foreign Office said he has an “extensive and wide-ranging programme” of meetings and events.
Among his scheduled engagements is a meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir, where, according to the Foreign Office, Dar will reiterate Pakistan’s “unwavering support for the right to self-determination of the Kashmiris”.
He will also participate in several other OIC ministerial meetings on the sidelines of the General Assembly, including the organisation’s Foreign Ministers’ Annual Coordination Meeting and meetings of other OIC contact groups.
Palestine will also feature prominently in Dar’s programme. The Foreign Office said he would attend several high-level meetings “as a reflection of Pakistan’s strong support for the Palestinian cause”.
These include a meeting of the Group of Eight Arab-Islamic countries and a high-level ministerial meeting of the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution.
Dar is also scheduled to address a UN Security Council high-level briefing on artificial intelligence, according to the Foreign Office.