S. Jaishankar, the minister of external affairs, claimed that many nations made reference to India at the United Nations General Assembly this time, which is unusual at the platform and indicates that the United Nations’ changes are in part to blame for India’s increased prominence. Jaishankar said he appreciates the change, which is more than a subtle change, as someone who has attended the UNGA for many years.
“In respect of UN reform, every General Assembly (session) you revisit that issue, but this time something has shifted. You can see that, you can sense that. It was articulated by President Biden. I think you also saw minister Lavrov of Russia to explicitly mention India from the General Assembly podium. A number of countries also actually also referred to India. It is not usual in a General Assembly for presidents and prime ministers or foreign ministers of a country to refer to another country,” Jaishankar said.
But you saw that on a number of occasions vis-a-vis us and to my mind it shows that it had a relevance to the reform of the UN, it reaffirmed that India mattered more and underlined the global Safraidouth relevance that we have,” Jaishankar said.
“We’ve got some tailwind behind us. Now we have to see what we can make of it. I think it’s a welcome development. As someone who’s been coming here for many years, I do believe that it’s more than a subtle shift and I welcome it,” he said.
The support for becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council came from Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia. India and Brazil should be considered for permanent participation in the council, he claimed, as they are key international actors.
Jamaica’s foreign minister Kamina Johnson Smith praised India’s vaccine outreach and said while others chose to withhold supplies, India’s vaccine outreach exemplified its principles of equality and mutual benefit. “We are deeply grateful to government, the people of India, led by PM Modi and external affairs minister Jaishankar,” Jamaican foreign minister said.
“From the very onset, India was a reliable partner whose assistance was critical to our pandemic response. India embraced a holistic and outward-looking vaccine diplomacy strategy…Jamaica was able to secure its first life-saving vaccines from India,” the minister said.