PM Narendra Modi attends Global Citizen Festival at Central Park in New York

New York: Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed his fans at the ‘Global Citizen Festival’ at Central Park in New York.

Addressing the gathering, Modi said that he was happy to be in the open and not in a closed conference room.

“I feel a current of hope in this park, I feel confident about the future of whole humanity. We want to lift poverty, make healthcare available to all, I know this is possible,” he said.

Rebuffing Pakistan for raising the Kashmir issue at the UN, Prime Minister Narendra Earlier, in the day, Modi asserted that he was prepared to engage in a serious bilateral dialogue with it "without the shadow of terrorism" but asked it to create an "appropriate environment" for that.

Without making a direct reference to the strident speech of his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif yesterday in which he had insisted on a plebiscite in Kashmir, Modi made it clear that "raising issues in this forum is not the way to make progress towards resolving issues between our two countries".

In his maiden address to the 193-member UN General Assembly, the Indian leader underlined that his government placed the highest priority on advancing friendship and cooperation with its neighbours, including Pakistan.