Modi to address UN development summit, visit San Francisco

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address a high-level summit on sustainable development hosted by the UN on 25 September and will also travel to San Francisco during his US visit, becoming the fourth Indian premier to visit America’s West Coast.

The United Nations summit for the adoption of the post-2015 development agenda will be held from 25 to 27 September in United Nations and will be convened as a high-level plenary meeting of the General Assembly.

Slated to be one of the largest ever gatherings at the UN, more than 150 world leaders are expected to attend the Sustainable Development Summit to formally adopt the outcome document of the new agenda.

Modi is expected to address the gathering on 25 September after which he will head to the West Coast to visit San Francisco, sources told PTI. The 70th session of the General Assembly will open on 15 September. The annual high-level General Debate will begin on 28 September and will run through 6 October.

Since Modi is likely to return to India around 28 September, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is expected to represent the country at the General Debate. Modi is expected to travel to San Francisco after his address to the Sustainable Development Summit on 25 September, becoming the fourth Indian Premier to visit US’ West Coast.

Modi’s proposed visit to San Francisco would also revive — after a gap of four decades with the exception of the former prime minister P V Narasimha Rao in 1994 — the post-independence tradition of Indian prime ministers visiting the US cities other than New York or Washington DC.