Special session of the United Nations General Assembly on the humanitarian emergency in Pakistan
On 19 August in New York, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Steven Vanackere will attend the Extraordinary Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations dedicated to the humanitarian emergency in Pakistan. In consultation with High Representative Catherine Ashton and Commissioner Georgieva, Minister Vanackere will address the General Assembly in the name of the European Union.
"No person can remain unmoved by the situation in Pakistan", Minister Vanackere said. "The unparalleled scale of this disaster means that extraordinary efforts will be required: the sheer number of people affected is huge and the consequences of the disaster will be felt by the people of Pakistan for quite some time to come". As announced earlier by Minister for Development Cooperation Charles Michel, Belgium will contribute an extra € 2 million via the United Nations World Food Programme, in addition to the € 4 million allocated as humanitarian aid.
Additional Belgian aid efforts are not excluded, but such efforts will have to be suitably coordinated by the international community, in consultation with all humanitarian agencies and with Pakistan itself. For this reason also, our country has sent a Belgian expert as representative with the experts’ mission of the EU Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC), which is to leave for Pakistan on Thursday.
