Minister Rawal busy in New York

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KATHMANDU: Home Minister Bhim Rawal held a meeting with Vice President of the Maldives, Dr. Mohamed Waheed at the sidelines of the new session of the UN General Assembly in New York, USA on Tuesday.

The two leaders discussed matters of mutual and regional interests ranging from climate vulnerabilities to the cooperation and solidarity within the framework of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

Special Advisor to the Prime Minister Kul Chandra Gautam, Ambassador/Permanent Representative Gyan Chandra Acharya and Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Durga Bhattarai were present in the meeting.

Also on Tuesday, Minister Rawal held a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Jean Asselborn and discussed various matters on further strengthening bilateral relations including mutual cooperation in multilateral forum.

Minister Rawal also had separate meetings with US Under-Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, Maria Otero and Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugee and Migration, Eric Schwartz.

In both meetings, matters related to bilateral relations, Nepal’s peace process and important agenda before the United Nations, including MDGs were discussed.

Earlier in the afternoon, Minister Rawal joined the “Save the Himalayas Awareness Rally” organised by the Non-Resident-Nepali-National Coordinating Council (NRN-NCC), USA in front of the UN building.

Addressing the rally, Minister Rawal underlined the need for preserving ecological balance in the Himalayas and called for international support to achieve this objective.

He expressed the belief that such a rally would help draw attention of the world community including world leaders towards the adverse impacts of climate change on the Himalayas.

Minister for Forest and Soil Conservation, Deepak Bohara also joined the rally.

Later on Tuesday evening, Minister Rawal attended the High-Level Dinner event ‘Ending Energy Poverty: Towards Universal Access” hosted by UN Foundation, UNDP, UNIDO, UNEP.

In the event, several heads of state, government and the Secretary-General were present.

Earlier in the afternoon, Minister Rawal attended a luncheon hosted by Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany, Angela Merkel for the Heads of Delegations of the Asian states.

Meanwhile, Vice Chairman of National Planning Commission, Dr. Jagadish Chandra Pokharel shared Nepal’s experience in the side-event “1000 days change a life, change the future” hosted by the US secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland, Micheal Martin.

Sharing Nepal’s strategy, Vice-Chairman Pokharel said that Nepal has been using three prong approach namely production of food through agriculture development, enhancement of accessibility for effective market networking, and preparation and distribution of food in the household level.

He emphasized that the Government of Nepal has given high importance to the 1000 days for life of newborn to save the lives of newborn.

Dr. Pokharel also shared Nepal’s experience, as a panelist, in the side-event “Can the MDGs provide a pathway to social justice: the challenges of intersecting inequalities”.

On the occasion, he expressed the view that Nepal has made progress in MDGs, however, some sections of the society such as ethnic groups, dalits, people in remote areas, women and children are lagging behind.

Pokharel shared that Nepal was taking specific measures like collecting disaggregate data, implementing targeted programs in a decentralised manner and encouraging community, civil society and private sector to address the inequality and injustice in the society, according to the Permanent Mission of Nepal to the United Nations.