NEW YORK: Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali attended the opening of the General Debate of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly at United Nations Headquarters in New York, United States.

On the occasion, Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, President of the General Assembly for the 74th session and António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations highlighted the UN's role in making the world a better place to live by preventing and solving conflicts.

They also stressed the need to strengthen multilateralism, utilise preventive diplomacy, support sustainable development, protect international laws, and promote human rights. Heads of state/government and heads of delegation of member states of the United Nations are participating in the debate, which will continue until September 30, 2019.

Nepal is scheduled to address the General Assembly on September 27, 2019. The Nepali delegation also participated in the first-ever Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Summit known as High-level Political Forum.

The two-day quadrennial summit is organised to follow-up and comprehensively review progress in the implementation of universal and transformative 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The theme of the summit "accelerated action, together" is intended not only to assess the achievement and lay the future course of actions but also to galvanise meaningful partnerships among nations for achieving SDGs by 2030.

Minister Gyawali joined the state Luncheon hosted by Secretary-General Guterres in honour of the visiting heads of state/government and heads of delegation in New York. In the evening, the Foreign Minister, accompanied by his spouse Saraswati Gyawali, joined a reception hosted by United States President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump in New York.