UN Gen Assembly Prez Amina Mohammed says she looks forward to being with PM Modi at UN Yoga event

 UN General Assembly President and Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed has tweeted that she looks forward to being with Modi at the yoga event.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will be away in Paris for the Summit for a New Global Financial Pact, but will be sending a video message to the celebration.

The ninth International Yoga Day, which will include mass yoga exercises, will be held from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. New York Time (5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. IST) on Wednesday and will be videocast on the UN network (webtv.un.org).

There is another mega Yoga show organised at at the Times Square. The annual event with the participation of the consulate, civic groups and yoga organisations is called "Mind over Madness Yog".

In his address to the UN General Assembly in 2014, Modi suggested declaring June 21 -- the Summer Solstice which is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere -- as the International Day of Yoga. He had linked yoga to both health and climate change.

PM Modi also has said that Yoga "is not about exercise but to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and the nature".

Yoga Day has become an international celebration with group practices and asana demonstrations across the globe. The first Yoga Day was celebrated in 2015 and has been held every year, even in the middle of the Covid-19 in 2020 and 2021 when it went virtual.

ITBP personnel on Yoga Day 

In his departure statement PM Modi said, "I will commence my visit in New York, where I will celebrate the International Day of Yoga on June 21 at the United Nations Headquarters with the UN leadership and members of the international community." 

"I look forward to this special celebration at the very location that supported India’s proposal in December 2014 to recognize an International Day of Yoga. I will thereafter travel to Washington D.C. President Biden and I have had the opportunity to meet several times since my last Official Visit to the USA in September 2021. This visit will be an opportunity to enrich the depth and diversity of our partnership."

Modi further stated, "India-US ties are multifaceted, with deepening engagements across sectors. USA is India’s largest trade partner in goods and services. We collaborate closely in science & technology, education, health, defence and security fields. 

The initiative on Critical & Emerging Technologies has added new dimensions and widened collaboration to defence industrial cooperation, space, telecom, quantum, Artificial Intelligence and biotech sectors. Our two countries are also collaborating to further our shared vision of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific."

"My discussions with President Biden and other senior US leaders will provide an opportunity to consolidate our bilateral cooperation as well as in plurilateral forums such as G20, Quad and IPEF," PM said.