Secretary General of SAARC, Ambassador Golam Sarwar undertook an official visit to the United States and paid a courtesy call on António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations in the United Nations Headquarters in New York on 08 April 2024.

At the outset, Secretary General Guterres welcomed Ambassador Sarwar and expressed desire of the United Nations to strengthen cooperation with SAARC, which represents the “Large Chunk of Global Population”.

In his opening remarks, Ambassador Sarwar appreciated UN Secretary General for United Nations’ steadfast commitment and support to SAARC, which is an Observer Organisation of the United Nations since 2004. The visiting Secretary General of SAARC had extensive discussions on further strengthening of relations between SAARC and United Nations in multiple areas of mutual interest especially Climate Change, Food Security and Renewable Energy collaborations.

While highlighting that SAARC has signed Memorandums of Understating(MoUs) with UN agencies including UNDP, FAO, UNEP, UNISDR, UNESCAP, UNTAD, UNICEF, UNESCO, WHO, UNAIDS, UNFPA and UNWOMEN, Ambassador Sarwar further stated that several of these MoUs need to be updated taking the account of present context in order to augment the existing ties between two parties.

Given the potential of reinforcing project-based collaboration between both organizations, Ambassador Sarwar proposed a joint meeting of the SAARC Secretariat and UN Agencies in Kathmandu at the SAARC Secretariat, in the near future as a brainstorming session to identify forthcoming areas for further collaboration.

Welcoming the proposal, Secretary General Guterres emphasized on the elevation of the cooperation between SAARC and the United Nations. He also instantly instructed his office to connect the SAARC Secretariat with relevant officials of the United Nations Headquarters for the sake of effective Sectoral Cooperation.

With a view to boost the effectiveness and sustainability of the Secretariat, Ambassador Sarwar explored the avenues for capacity building opportunities for the officials of the SAARC Secretariat. Secretary General Guterres assured continued UN support and assistance toward SAARC and both dignitaries during the meeting agreed to work closely to further enhance the existing ties between SAARC and UN in the coming years.