New york: Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad has said the UN remains essential for coordinating global responses to emerging and long-term challenges, including artificial intelligence, SDGs and climate change.

He was addressing a group of twenty students from the Manhattan University who visited Pakistan Mission to receive a briefing about Pakistan's engagement with the UN System.

The Ambassador emphasized that multilateral cooperation is increasingly necessary in a rapidly changing world.

On Security Council reforms, the Permanent Representative said that Pakistan does not support adding new permanent members. He emphasized that expanding permanent seats would not resolve existing imbalances and could further deepen divisions, thus increasing institutional dysfunction.

He said Pakistan supports an increase in the category of the non-permanent membership as part of the Uniting for Consensus (UfC) Group to make the Council more democratic, representative, efficient and accountable.