The Indian Air force (IAF) has formally inducted the Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL) Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) in a ceremony officiated by India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at Jodhpur Air Force Station on 3 October. The indigenously developed LCH was named ‘Prachanda’ (Fierce) and is expected to undertake missions such as ground attack, counterinsurgency, as well […]
Licious, the Temasek-backed Indian meat company, has announced the launch of UnCrave, its first foray into vegetarian meat.
The new launch will see Licious work directly with consumers on the UnCrave products, focusing on Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru initially, with more cities to come over the next year. Licious is a leading DTC meat company delivering about two million orders a month with a 90 percent repeat order rate.
India’s plant-based shift
“India has about 100 days in a year where meat consumers cannot eat their favourite animal meat, and that is exactly where we’re positioning ourselves. Animal meat eaters who cannot consume meat on those 100 days are our target audience, not the vegetarians, because they’re anyway not used to the texture, else they would have converted. If they do try UnCrave, they’ll be a bonus for us,” Simeran Bhasin, business head, alternative protein, Licious, said in a statement.
Licious says it spent about two years developing the products; it’s launching with vegetarian versions of chicken and lamb, with fish on the way.
Think tank The Good Food Institute India worked with Licious on the development and launch. “Licious understands the meat consumer better than pretty much anybody else,” Varun Deshpande, Managing Director of GFI India said in a LinkedIn post. “[And] if they can do the same for plant-based, this foray will be fantastic for the entire category.”
Licious products | Courtesy
The company says it is also starting to look to acquire smaller startups in the emergent plant-based space. According to Bhasin, more than 100 startups have launched vegetarian meat in India over the last several years, and acquiring companies will help to secure its stronghold in the emerging plant-based category. Licious wants to be the category leader, Bhasin said.
The world’s leading meat companies have begun to edge into the plant-based categories; plant-based meat earns the category leaders about ten percent of revenue at present. But recent research suggests the category is in an S-curve trajectory where mainstream acceptance and a market penetration tipping point expected within the next few years.
Scaling up
According to Bhasin, the margins are healthier for plant-based meat compared with conventional animal meat. But price parity at retail still remains a challenge.
“Plant-based meat products are at a premium price point and are not for everyone to eat everyday. The raw materials sourcing and other factors need to be scaled up as we progress and bring in the economies of scale, to lower prices, that is a challenge we need to overcome,” Bhasin said.
India vegan meat brand GoodDot
Meat consumption has been on the rise in India in recent years, but demand for plant-based has also climbed, estimated to see a $400 million value in the next few years. Licious has raised nearly $500 million from investors including Temasek, the Singaporean government’s holding company, along with Bertelsmann Investments, Avendus, and others. The company is now valued at about $1.5 billion.
Stuti Mishra in the Independent of 29 September 2022 summarises and analyses the report “A Decade of Defiance: Ten years of reporting land and environmental activism worldwide” by Global Witness
More than 1,700 environmental defenders have been killed around the world in the last decade with one death reported every other day on average…The report titled A Decade of Defiance: Ten years of reporting land and environmental activism worldwide, released by Global Witness, reveals the increasing threats environmental activists are facing as the climate and biodiversity crisis worsens.
The research states that a total of 1,733 people have been killed over the past 10 years trying to protect their land and resources. That is an average of one defender killed approximately every two days over 10 years.
The report shows Brazil has been the deadliest country for environmental defenders with 342 lethal attacks reported since 2012 with over 85 per cent of killings within the Brazilian Amazon.
The data found within the report also shows that over half of the attacks over the 10-year period have taken place in three countries — Brazil, Colombia, and the Philippines — with around 300 killings reported in these countries.
Mexico and Honduras witnessed over 100 killings while Guatemala and India saw 80 and 79 respectively, remaining one of the most dangerous countries. The report also reports 12 mass killings, including three in India and four in Mexico.
Mexico was the country with the highest recorded number of killings in 2021, totalling 54 killings, up from 30 the previous year. Almost half of those killed were again Indigenous people while over a third were forced disappearances, including at least eight members of the Yaqui community.
The report also reveals that over three-quarters of the attacks recorded in 2021 took place in Latin America. In Brazil, Peru and Venezuela, a big majority of 78 per cent of these attacks occurred in the Amazon.
Meanwhile, the biggest increase in lethal attacks was witnessed in Brazil and India in 2021 with 26 deaths reported in Mexico, up from 20 and 14 in India, up from four.
Both Colombia and the Philippines saw a drop in killings to 33 in 2021 from 65, and 19 from 30 in 2021 respectively. Yet overall they remain two of the countries with the highest numbers of killings in the world since 2012.
2021 Highlights from Global Witness report
Around 200 Land and Environmental Defenders were killed in 2021 – nearly four people a week
Over three-quarters of the attacks recorded in 2021 took place in Latin America
Nearly 40 per cent of all attacks reported were against Indigenous people
Mexico recorded the highest number of killings in 2021
Brazil and India both saw a rise in lethal attacks in 2021
50 of the victims killed in 2021 were small-scale farmers
In Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo remained the country with the highest number of attacks — eight defenders were killed there in 2021. All eight of these killings were in Virunga National Park, which remains extremely dangerous for the park rangers protecting it.
The organisation began collecting data on attacks against those defending land and the environment in 2012 and found that the control and use of land and territory is a central issue in countries where defenders are threatened. Much of the increasing killing, violence and repression is linked to territorial conflicts and the pursuit of economic growth based on the extraction of natural resources from the land, it states. The research has also highlighted that Indigenous communities in particular face a disproportionate level of attacks — nearly 40 per cent — even though they make up only 5 per cent of the world’s population.
However, the research found that the figures also do not capture the true scale of the problem, as tightened control on media has led to severe underreporting in some countries where environmental defenders are most vulnerable. Research has also found that few perpetrators of killings are rarely ever brought to justice due to the failures of governments to properly investigate these crimes.
While a majority of these attacks are not properly investigated or reported on, a big proportion of these attacks were linked to sectors like mining and infrastructure, including large-scale agribusiness and hydroelectric dams.
Many authorities ignore or actively impede investigations into these killings often due to alleged collusion between corporate and state interests, the report says.
All over the world, Indigenous peoples, environmental activists and other land and environmental defenders risk their lives for the fight against climate change and biodiversity loss.
They play a crucial role as a first line of defence against ecological collapse, yet are under attack themselves facing violence, criminalisation and harassment perpetuated by repressive governments and companies prioritising profit over human and environmental harm.
a spokesperson for Global Witness said
“With democracies increasingly under attack globally and worsening climate and biodiversity crises, this report highlights the critical role of defenders in solving these problems,” a spokesperson for Global Witness said, adding that the organisation makes an “urgent appeal for global efforts to protect and reduce attacks against them.”
Apart from killings, the report also reveals a number of tactics being used to silence them, like death threats, surveillance, sexual violence, or criminalisation – and that these kinds of attacks are even less well reported.
New York: President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K) Barrister Sultan Mahmood has said that US officials have assured him to play their role to settle the long-standing Kashmir issue between Pakistan and India – the two south Asian nuclear neighbors.
Barrister Sultan Mahmood who is currently in the US said this while addressing a dinner reception organized in his honor at a local restaurant located on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn.
He further said that now the subject of Kashmiriat will be taught in all the educational institutions of Kashmir. Also, he said the people of Kashmir have been given the facility of health cards.
The ceremony saw overwhelming participation from the Pakistani-American Kashmiri community.
The ceremony kicked-off with the recitation of a few verses from the holy Quran followed by a Nat-e-Rasool (SAW).
Sultan Mahmood presided over the event, while other dignitaries also graced the ceremony with their presence on the stage.
The topic of this meeting was the Kashmir issue, on which the speakers expressed their views.
Sultan Mahmood said India is trying to suppress the Kashmir issue and the Modi regime wants to impose a Hindu ruler upon the Muslim dominated territory. But the Kashmiris will not let this happen and they will continue to struggle for their right to self-determination and freedom.
He said that Kashmiris will not remain silent until the freedom of occupied territory.
In a meeting, Mahmood said that the American officials have assured him to resolve the Kashmir issue.
Qazi Mushtaq thanked Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry for his participation in the event and also welcomed the other guests on this occasion.
Sardar Sawar Khan, the head of the Pakistani-American Kashmiri community, said that the struggle for the occupied Kashmir Valley will continue at all fronts.
The participants appreciated the efforts of the organizers of the event for highlighting the importance of Kashmir issue.
Imagine the tobacco producer who invests in smoke limitation programs, or the arms manufacturer who attends a conference proposing to ban weapons and seek a better future. Gautam Adani, one of India’s most ruthlessly adept billionaires, has added his name to the growing list of corporate transvestism, using ecological credentials as his camouflage for fossil fuel predation.
The central feature of Adani is having a nose for getting on the bandwagon and pushing to its front. Everyone is doing it, at least when it comes to renewable energy sources. Recently, the Adani Group, an entity specialising in power generation, real estate, commodities, and port infrastructure, promised it would invest $US70 billion in the green energy transition and associated infrastructure in what it calls “an integrated Hydrogen-based value chain”.
In terms of solar energy, the company has jostled its way up the ranks through Adani Green Energy, creating sprawling “solar parks” comprising thousands of hectares in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. The acquisition of such land has come at considerable cost to local farmers, many of whom have protested such alienation and loss of fertile land.
Adani’s program is relentlessly expansive, part of a suite of approaches that seems to be winning investment from such companies as the French multinational TotalEnergies, which poured in money to acquire 25% of a stake in Adani New Industries. In this, the Indian billionaire is simply pursuing what his other colleagues in the fossil fuel line are doing: pretend to go green and hope that no one notices the off-colour joke. In this enterprise, Adani hopes to make his company the world’s largest renewable energy producer by 2030 (surely the joke), which might encourage some laughter but for its seriousness.
At the Forbes Global CEO conference held in Singapore, Adani was preeningly confident, exhibiting the cocksure awareness of a crossdressing trickster. “We are already the world’s largest solar player, and we intend to do far more. Adani New Industries is the manifestation of the bet we are making in the energy transition space.” He also told his audience that the new business, additionally “to our existing 20 GW renewables portfolio” would “be augmented by another 45 GW of hybrid renewable power generation spread over 100,000 hectares”. Boastfully, he reminded those caring to listen that this was “an area 1.4 times that of Singapore.”
In April this year, he told the India Economic Conclave that his country was “on the cusp of decades of growth that the world will want to tap into. Therefore, there can be no better defence of our interests at this time than atmanirbhar.” The Hindi word in the statement, denoting self-reliance, is instructive enough, a feature of the Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi’s nationalist drive.
As with most billionaires in history, success is a convenient wedding of self-aggrandisement and patriotic purpose, a case of making money and wrapping oneself in the flag. More to the point, it is a shamelessly calculating push to combine interests of another sort, notably of the environmentally appealing nature. “For India,” Adani told the audience at the IEC, “the combination of solar and wind power coupled with green hydrogen opens up unprecedented possibilities.”
Making greenwashing an essential part of its public relations, the Adani Group is globally engaged in promoting souped up ecological crossdressing. In October 2021, the London Science Museum announced a sponsorship deal with Adani at the Global Investment Summit, a lead-up event to the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow. The agreement involves the development of an exhibition space titled, “Energy Revolution: The Adani Green Energy Gallery”.
Dame Mary Archer, chair of the Science Museum Group, explained that the gallery would “take a truly global perspective on the world’s most urgent challenge. We face a grave threat, but the future is not predestined”. Critics were less than impressed by the Museum’s breezy refusal to consider Adani’s blotchy human rights record and treatment of indigenous communities both in India and Australia. Protests were organised at the entrance to the museum. Two trustees resigned.
Nothing, however, gets away from the core business of the Adani Group, which has close ties with the Modi government, ever keen to fashion it as a spear of influence. The renewables canard cannot hide the practical, solid elements that keep Adani big in coal mining, gas distribution and transportation.
The latter has been particularly striking, with the company winning government tenders to operate a number of airport facilities despite lacking any experience in aviation. This was a source of consternation for Kerala’s Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, whose state government was ignored in the bid for Thiruvananthapuram airport. “People of Kerala will not accept this act of brazen cronyism,” he declared in 2020.
Whether its brazen cronyism or thick-as-thieves solidarity, no one, in terms of scale and influence, has as much influence with New Delhi as Adani does. As Tim Buckley of Climate Energy Finance, a Sydney-based think tank explains, “His political power, his ability to understand the lay of the land in India, is second to none.”
The Adani Group also remains controversially, and deeply embedded in such controversial projects as the Carmichael Mine in Queensland, Australia, where it is looking, increasingly, like a relic, an echo of habitual ecological vandalism best shelved. The company made a concerted effort to suppress the findings of a university report into its lack of consultation in mining operations with Traditional Owners, who had not “given their free, prior and informed consent” to the operations. The United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination also expressed its concerns in 2019 that Adani’s consultations regarding the Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) “might not have been conducted in good faith”.
All this paints a picture of a company keen to cut corners and stomp on toes with ruthless disdain. For his efforts, Gautam Adani finds himself at a peg below the summit of wealth, being the second wealthiest man on the planet. Only the extra-terrestrially minded Elon Musk bars his route on the rich list’s chart. Ecological crossdressing, it would seem, pays.
The Indian Army reissued on 23 September 2022 a request for information (RFI) to identify candidates for Close Quarters Battle (CQB) carbines to be procured from domestic Indian industry. This procurement program could be considered a restart of 2010 and 2018 efforts which also sought a replacement for the current Sterling 1A1/2 9mm Carbine that […]
New York: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Friday posed a pertinent question before the global leaders at the UN General Assembly as to why Pakistan is paying the price of climate change since the country’s carbon-footprint contribution is almost zero.
Addressing the UNGA-77 session in New York, Pakistan’s premier said that climate change has pushed one-third of his country under waters in the wake of a superstorm that no one had witnessed in living memory. More than 11 million people would further be pushed below the poverty line, he said.
“No words can describe the shock we are living through. I have come here to explain, the scale and magnitude of this climate catastrophe that has pushed one-third of my country underwater in a super storm that no one has seen in living memory,” he said.
More than 33 million people including women and children are now at high risk of health hazards. Around 650,000 women are giving birth in makeshift tents.1500 people lost their lives in the flash flood. Millions of climate migrants are still looking for dry land to live.
13000, km road network, and 370 bridges, millions of homes and 4 million acres of land have been swept away by floods, while the damages of this climate catastrophe are immensurable. Pakistan had never seen such a huge devastating impact of global warming, ever before.
“I have visited personally every corner of my country. People of Pakistan ask as to why this flood devastation has racked havoc. It’s time to ask as to what can be done, and what must be done.”
Undeniable truth is the calamity has not been triggered by anything we have done. Our glaciers are melting at fast pace, and this global warming is making Pakistan a hottest place and one of the world’s 10 vulnerable countries on the planet.
Real worry is next days when the cameras would leave and the story would shift away from this hot issue like Ukraine and we would be left to mercy of monster monsoon floods.
Many of lives we have saved. Permanent food insecurity, 11 million people will be pushed further below the poverty line.
We have mobilized all available resources. Budget priorities have now been shifted to flood hit citizens, cash transfers are being made to the most effected 4 million women.
Rs 70 billion are being spent on the Benazir Income Support Program. But the scale of disaster is immeasurable .
He questioned as to why are my people are paying the price of global warming, though no fault of us. We have no contribution towards the carbon footprint but our economy is suffering the crippling impacts of climate change.
Hope is the best enemy of darkness, Pakistanis are resilient people. He said rapid economic growth is the top most priority of Pakistani government. We need a stable external environment; sustainable peace could only be achieved through the just solution of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in light of the UN resolutions. He said the long standing issue of Kashmir needs to be resolved in accordance with the will of Kashmiri people.
He said New Delhi has ramped up troops in IOK. Through extra judicial killing, and deliberate targeting of Kashmiri youth, India is seeking to turn the Muslim dominated IOK into Hindu dominated territory as fake domiciles have been issued to some two million people, fraudulently.
India must take credible steps to bring peace and build strong ties with Pakistan. He said that the both nuclear armed countries have so far fought three wars and the consequence of which is the grinding poverty. War is no option. The mutual problems and issues can be resolved through peaceful negotiations. Shehbaz also asked the India to come up and have close ties with Pakistan and work together for the promotions of education and healthcare in both countries.
Talking about the neighboring Afghanistan, Shebaz Sharif said that 30 million Afghans are left without functional economy. Pakistan is very concerned for the restoration of peace and progress in Afghan soil. He asked to global community to support Afghanistan in this crucial time.
He also spoke about the Afghan women’s and girls’ right to education and work, while urging the world to avoid isolating the Afghan Interim Government, as it could “aggravate the suffering of the Afghan people, who are already destitute”.
“Constructive engagement and economic support are more likely to secure a positive response,” he said.
The premier said that a peaceful, prosperous, and connected Afghanistan is in everyone’s “collective interests.
New York: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday said that the Hindutva” ideology, the RSS-BJP government in India has initiated illegal demographic changes in the occupied territory in gross violation of international law, and urged the UN to implement its resolutions in letter and spirit.
Addressing the ministerial meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir, Bilawal thanked the Secretary-General for providing an update on the implementation of the action plan that was adopted during the last meeting of the OIC Contact Group on the margins of the 48th OIC CFM in Islamabad.
“Today’s interaction would help us take stock of the prevailing political and security environment and the consequent impact on the humanitarian and human rights situation in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and consider ways and means to address these challenges,” Bilawal said.
Last month marked the completion of three years of India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 05 August 2019 aimed at changing the internationally recognized “disputed” status of Jammu and Kashmir and altering the demographic structure of the occupied territory in blatant violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolutions.
To this end, India has resorted to a series of illegal actions, gross and consistent violations of human rights, and other crimes:
First, there is no letup in the Indian military deployment in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Roughly 900,000 troops to date. This military deployment is the densest occupation in recent history.
Second, this massive Indian occupying force has continued to perpetrate vicious and repressive actions, including:
He said extrajudicial killings of innocent Kashmiris in fake encounters; Custodial killings and “cordon-and-search” operations; the use of pellet guns to kill, maim, and blind peaceful protestors; o the abduction and enforced disappearance of 15,000 young Kashmiri boys; and “collective punishments” with the destruction and burning of entire villages and urban neighborhoods.
Third, the Indian authorities incarcerated the entire Hurriyat leadership, the true representatives of Kashmiri political aspirations. Most Hurriyat leaders are subjected to brutal and inhumane treatment at the hands of Indian occupation forces.
Fourth, in pursuance of the “Hindutva” ideology, the RSS-BJP government in India has initiated illegal demographic changes in the occupied territory in gross violation of international law, including the Fourth Geneva Convention. This is central to its scheme of converting the Muslim majority into a Hindu-majority territory to drown out the demand for freedom and self-determination.
New “domicile rules” have been introduced, and over 4 million fake domicile certificates have been issued to Hindus from across India to settle in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The land and properties of Kashmiris are being confiscated for military and official use, Bilawal added.
Through an exercise of reallocation of electoral seats in the Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir “legislature” and the gerrymandering of electoral boundaries within the occupied territory by a so-called “Delimitation Commission” Muslim representation is to be further reduced, and the voices for freedom further silenced.
There will be no peace in South Asia until the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is peacefully resolved on the basis of justice and international legitimacy.
The dispute has remained unresolved primarily due to India’s refusal to implement the resolutions of the Security Council, which stipulated that the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir shall be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations.
The ceasefire understanding of 25 February 2021 along the Line of Control (LOC) was a prime example of Pakistan’s efforts to maintain peace along the LOC, save precious Kashmiri lives, and alleviate the sufferings of Kashmiris living along both sides of the LOC.
We expected that India would take positive steps to enable the resumption of dialogue to resolve the dispute. Instead, India intensified its repression.
Pakistan is prepared to resume a dialogue with India to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. However, the onus is on India to create a conducive environment for such a dialogue. It must:
– Reverse its unilateral and illegal measures instituted on 05 August 2019;
– Halt its human rights violations in IIOJK;
– Halt and reverse the demographic changes in the occupied territory.
Pakistan’s FM said that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, along with Palestine, is one of the two longest- standing items on the UN and OIC agenda.
Pakistan greatly appreciates the OIC’s continued and unequivocal support for this just cause.
The OIC has been at the forefront of efforts to support the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiri people for their inalienable right to self-determination, as reflected in the decisions and resolutions of the Islamic Summits and Council of Foreign Minister sessions and the statements issued by the OIC’s General Secretariat.
The OIC’s Contact Group has made an invaluable contribution to galvanizing international attention on the worsening situation in IIOJK.
OIC support remains fundamental to efforts toward a lasting solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, as captured in the action plan agreed in Islamabad earlier this year.
He urged for an active support in raising the issue at relevant UN fora, including the possibility of writing a joint letter to the Security Council on behalf of the Contact Group conveying its outcome documents.
New York: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday said that over the last 7 decades, India has obstructed the efforts of the UN mechanisms to implement the UN Security Council’s resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).
Addressing the 12th Ministerial Meeting of the UN Group of Friends of Mediation, titled “Avoiding Humanitarian Crises through Mediation” Bilawal said the continuation of India’s illegal actions was manifested in the unilateral measures taken on and since 5 August 2019 to annex the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir without even the fig leaf of legal justification or plebiscite.
He said the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is one of the oldest issues on the agenda of the Council. At the outset, the Security Council decided that “the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir will be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations”.
The Security Council also instituted several mechanisms to secure the implementation of its decisions on Jammu and Kashmir, including:
a) the UN Commission on India and Pakistan (UNCIP);
b) the deployment of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP); and
c) the appointment of several distinguished Special Representatives.
To this end, Pakistan continues to advocate a more active role by the United Nations Security Council and the Secretary-General.
We urge the Secretary-General to avail the full panoply of mediatory measures available to him under Article 99 of the UN Charter to persuade India to reverse its unilateral measures and agree to promote an equitable solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with Security Council resolutions and
the UN Charter. The Security Council should give full support to the Secretary- General in using his good offices to this end.
Bilawal said “let me begin by thanking the Co-Chairs Turkiye and Finland for organizing 12th Ministerial Meeting of the UN Group of Friends of Mediation and their successful stewardship of this initiative.”
Pakistan also commends the UN Secretary General and President Erdogan of Turkiye for successfully mediating the landmark Black Sea Grain Initiative.
He said The important role of the United Nations in conflict prevention is unquestionable.
Bilawal said the Charter of the United Nations contains a comprehensive framework for the pacific settlement of disputes. At any stage of a conflict, the Security Council can recommend to the parties appropriate procedures or methods of settlement of their dispute, which may include mediation under Chapter VI of the Charter.
Under Article 37 and 38, the Security Council also has the power to recommend terms of settlement to the parties, if they request this or if the Council considers that the continuance of their dispute is in fact likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security. Over the years, the Security Council has also established subsidiary organs to carry out mediation in pursuance of this core mandate.
Nearly 77 years after the signing of the Charter, the challenges and threats to peace and security are perhaps more complex, but the Charter’s purposes and principles remain valid and immutable. It is imperative to reaffirm our commitment and confidence in these principles and to promote solutions to disputes and conflicts, between large and small States, on the basis of these principles.
The Secretary General’s repeated calls for a ‘surge in diplomacy’ for peace is both urgent and important. And, such a surge of diplomacy must emanate from the United Nations and the machinery that is available to it for the purpose, including for mediation and similar means of dispute resolution.
While the United Nations has had several successes in mediating political settlements to disputes and conflicts, it could and should have done more and with greater success.
In conclusion, Excellencies, let me say that Pakistan is a proud member of the Group of Friends of Mediation, and I would like to thank the Chairs and all the members of the Group for their work.
