UN General Assembly
2011

Allow me at the outset to congratulate Mr. Al-Nasser on his election to the presidency of the General Assembly. I wish to assure him of India’s full cooperation in the conduct of the sixty-sixth session of the Assembly. It is also my great pleasure to welcome in our midst the new State of South Sudan. We meet during this session of the General Assembly at a time of great uncertainty and profound change. Until a few years ago, the world had taken for granted the benefits of globalization and global interdependence. Today we are being called upon to cope with the negative dimensions of those very phenomena. Economic, social and political events in different parts of the world have coalesced, and their adverse impact is now being felt across countries and continents. The world economy is in trouble. The shoots of recovery which were visible after the economic and financial crisis of 2008 have yet to blossom. In many respects, the crisis has deepened even further. The traditional engines of the global economy,