UNGA 76: Di Maio and Sereni, Afghanistan on the agenda of UN meetings

NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 22 – The Italian delegation to the 76th General Assembly took part in bilateral and multilateral meetings in the first two days of the mission to New York: the situation in Afghanistan was the common thread of the contacts of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Luigi Di Maio also in light of today’s G20 ministerial meeting which he chaired in video-conference as current president of the Group.

Yesterday, Di Maio met his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in what the Indian Minister of Foreign Affairs defined as “a productive interaction” on challenges linked to vaccine accessibility and travel facilitation. Jaishankar added that he looked forward to a follow up at the G20 meeting which should pave the way to another opportunity to discuss the crisis in Afghanistan, this time at head of state and government level, once the General Assembly will be over.

“The situation in Afghanistan is the most current demostration of the need for coordinated and cohesive responses to complex challenges”, said Di Maio in a video-message to the G20 National Academies Meeting in Rome, reaffirming that “Italy, as G20 president, believes that this forum is an important platform to collide the efforts of the international community, with the UN at the forefront, in the definition of a shared and efficient approach to deal with this crisis”. Today, Prime Minister Mario Draghi spoke about this to Vladimir Putin while the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that Minister Wang Yi will participate to the G20 meeting in New York alongside other Group’s delegates, the representatives of UN agencies and of financial institutions involved in the crisis.

Alongside his French colleague Le Drian and Germany’s Maas, Di Maio today co-chaired also meeting over Libya and later met with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in the Italian Mission’s headquarters: they spoke of the importance of the NATO-UE cooperation, the process of strategic consideration over the future of NATO and the situation in Afghanistan. He met the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and the UAE Minister for Industry an Advanced Technology Sultan Ahmad Al Jaber, with whom he talked about a relaunch of the partnership and of bilateral economic and commercial relations through Expo Dubai 2020.

In turn, Deputy Minister Marina Sereni held today an “excellent meeting” with UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner: the “rich discussion” touched on key themes, such as the Italy-UN partnership, cooperation with the G20 and sustainable development actions, situation in Afghanistan and in Sahel and the reform of the development system. Sereni also met with Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Youth Jayathma Wickramanayake, expected in Milan for the Pre-COP on climate, and Charlotte Petri from UNICEF. With Qatari Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Lolwah Alkhater, talks regarded Afghanistan, also in light of the key role played by Doha in the relationship with Taliban after the fall of Kabul. (@OnuItalia)