S Jaishankar reaches New York to chair two high-level UNSC meetings

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday reached New York to preside over two high-level meetings of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on UN peacekeeping and on terrorism.

Taking to Twitter, India permanent representative at the United Nations, TS Tirumurti said he is delighted to receive Jaishankar.

"Delighted to receive External Affairs Minister @DrSJaishankar in New York. EAM will chair two high-level meetings of UN #SecurityCouncil - on UN peacekeeping & on terrorism. He will participate in a ceremony at @UNPeacekeeping memorial along with UNSG @antonioguterres," he tweeted.

The meeting comes as India holds the Presidency of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

The first event on August 18, 2021, will be an open debate on 'Protecting the Protectors: Technology and Peacekeeping' while the second event on August 19, 2021, will be a high-level briefing on 'Threats to International Peace and Security caused by Terrorist Acts'.

Both these topics are priorities for India during its UNSC innings, said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in a press release.

The open debate on Peacekeeping will focus on the theme of 'Protecting the Protectors', including through the use of modern technological tools to enhance the safety and security of Peacekeepers and to aid Peacekeeping Missions to effectuate their mandates effectively and efficiently.

In this regard, India, in collaboration with the UN, would be rolling out the UNITE AWARE Platform, which is a situational awareness software programme that allows a Peacekeeping Operations Centre to visualise and analyse the ground situation in a conflict zone on a real-time basis.

This project aims to demonstrate the impact of modern surveillance technology on the detection of asymmetric threats. The aim is to improve camp security for UN peacekeepers, the overall security situation, and the quality of situational awareness.

India has partnered with the UN to roll out the UNITE Aware platform initially in four UN Peacekeeping Missions: MUNISMA (Mali), UNMISS (South Sudan), UNFICYP (Cyprus) and AMISOM (Somalia), read the release.

An MoU between the Government of India and the UN in support of the 'Partnership for Technology in Peacekeeping' initiative is expected to be signed during the visit.

The executing agencies for this MoU would be the Center for UN Peacekeeping (CUNPK - on the Indian side) and UN C4ISR Academy for Peace Operations (Command, Control, Communications, Computers, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) based in Entebbe (Uganda) on the UN's side, added the release.

On 19 August, EAM would preside over a briefing session on the six-monthly report of the UN Secretary-General on the threat posed by Islamic State (ISIL/Da'esh), under the agenda item "Threats to International Peace and Security caused by Terrorist Acts", added the MEA release.

During this visit, Jaishankar would also have bilateral meetings with Foreign Ministers of other Member States on the sidelines of these UNSC high-level events.

(ANI)

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