“When It Comes To South-South Cooperation, We Walk The Talk”: EAM Jaishankar

New York [US]: Underlining the many aspects of India’s G20 presidency that the world might “find useful”, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said New Delhi has walked the talk when it comes to South-South cooperation.

He also lauded the inclusion of the African Union as a permanent G20 member calling it one of the most important outcomes of the summit.

Addressing the ‘India-UN for Global South: Delivering for Development’ event in New York, the External Affairs Minister said, “While we are the G20 president till the end of this year, both before the G20 presidency and after it, we will remain very much a partner, a contributor, a collaborator, in our own way perhaps an inspiration to others on how to address developmental challenges. Our experiences and our challenges, we place before in a spirit of sharing.”

He added that the message that India sought to convey by making the African Union a full member of the G20 under its presidency would resonate not just within the grouping but also beyond it.

“…we know that there may be aspects of it which you may find useful from, as Ambassador Kamboj mentioned, that we are today active in almost 80 countries around the world. And what I can say is that when it has come to South-South cooperation, we have endeavoured to walk the talk,” Jaishankar said at the UN event.

He added that geopolitical calculations and contests today are affecting the very basic requirements of many nations, including their affordable access to food, fertilizers and energy.

“With each passing day, in fact, it has become clearer to us that today geopolitical calculations and geopolitical contests are impacting very basic requirements of many countries, including their affordable access to food, to fertilizers and to energy,” Jaishankar said.

“It was therefore, for us a particularly onerous responsibility to make sure that in collaboration with all our G20 members, we were able to refocus the G20 on the urgent depressing needs of the Global South and this was reflected in my mind in eight key outcomes of the New Delhi G20 Summit – the action plan for sustainable Development Goals, the reform of international financial institutions, a Green development Pact, the high principles for Life the Lifestyle for Environment Initiative, an understanding on debt management, a consensus on woman-led development, an acceptance of digital public infrastructure and an agreement to undertake global skills mapping,” he added.