United Nations/New Delhi, June 12 (Representative) As the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution on multilingualism that referred to the Hindi language for the first time, India welcomed the move and said it is imperative that multilingualism at the UN is embraced and that New Delhi will support the UN in achieving this objective. The resolution on multilingualism adopted in the 193-member UN General Assembly, was presented by Andorra and co-sponsored by over 80 nations including India.India’s Permanent Representative to the UN TS Tirumurti, in his address at the General Assembly, thanked the co-facilitators – Andorra and Colombia – for successfully steering consultations on the Resolution on Multilingualism and said India is happy to co-sponsor this Resolution. “Multilingualism is recognized as a core value of the UN and we also thank Secretary-General for prioritizing multilingualism.“This year, for the first time, the resolution has a mention of Hindi language. The resolution encourages the UN Department of Global Communications to continue disseminating important communications and messages in official as well as in non-official languages, including in Hindi language. The resolution also mentions Bangla and Urdu for the first time.
We welcome these additions,” he added.Tirumurti said India has been partnering with the UN Department of Global Communications (DGC) since 2018 by providing an extra-budgetary contribution to mainstream and consolidate news and multimedia content in Hindi language.As part of these efforts, ‘Hindi @ UN’ project was launched in 2018 with an objective to enhance the public outreach of the United Nations in Hindi language, and to spread greater awareness about global issues among millions of Hindi-speaking population around the world.He recalled the UNSC resolution 13(1) adopted In its first session on February 1, 1946, which stated that “the United Nations cannot achieve its purposes unless the people of the world are fully informed of its aims and activities.” “It is imperative that multilingualism at the United Nations in a true sense is embraced and India will support the UN in achieving this objective,” he added.