India’s G20 Presidency, according to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, pushed for solutions to be found within the Global South on Friday. By organizing the inaugural Voice of the Global South Summit in January 2023, he claimed that India had set an example for other countries to follow. The summit allowed the countries to discuss the main issues and priorities facing the Global South. “As we took over the G20 presidency last year, Prime Minister Modi declared that and I quote, “Our G20 priorities will be shaped in consultation with not just our G20 partners, but also our fellow travellers from the Global South, whose voice often goes unheard,” Jaishankar said at the Foreign Ministers Session of the Second Voice of the Global South.
India has since walked the talk by hosting the first voice of the Global South Summit in January this year. By doing so, we were able to elicit and deliberate on the key concerns and priorities of the Global South. This, in turn, informed our approach to the G20 discussions throughout the year.”
The External Affairs Minister noted that long-standing structural inequities have been seriously aggravated by the devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Jaishankar stressed that it has turned worse due to the fuel, food and fertilizer crisis emanating from the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine and its response. He stated that India is hosting the Second Voice of Global South to report on key outcomes from the New Delhi G20 Summit.