Progress has been made for Hindi’s inclusion in official languages at UN: S Jaishankar

New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said efforts are on to get Hindi recognised as an official language at the United Nations and progress has been made in that direction but it will take some time.

Jaishankar made the remarks at an event in Delhi where it was announced that the next World Hindi Conference will be organised in Nadi, Fiji from February 15-17 next year, reports news agency PTI.

“You would know Hindi is being used by UNESCO. As far as the use of Hindi in its headquarters is concerned, we have an MoU with them, they are using it in social media and newsletters. It will take some time to expand this, it is not so easy for a language to be introduced in the UN process.” said S Jaishankar on being asked about efforts to include Hindi among the official languages at the UN.

Currently, the UN has six official languages, ie, English, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, and French.

The External Affairs Minister said, “Work is being done on it, progress has been made and we expect that this will move forward.”

Speaking at the event, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said, “The 12th World Hindi Conference will be organised in Nadi, Fiji from February 15-17 next year. It is being organised in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs and the Fijian government,” reports PTI.

The new logo of the World Hindi Conference and the website were also unveiled at the event.

According to the report, the logo of the World Hindi Conference was selected through a competition in which around 1,436 people gave their entries. Out of these entries, 78 were shortlisted and Mumbai’s Munna Khushwaha’s entry was selected. The winner will be handed over a cash prize of ₹75,000.