Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday addressed the inaugural session of the third Voice of the Global South Summit, calling it a platform to “give voice to the needs and aspirations of those who have been unheard till now” at a time when “global governance and financial institutions formed in the last century have been unable to fight the challenges of this century.” “Today, we are meeting at a time when there is an atmosphere of uncertainty all around. The world has not yet fully come out of the effects of Covid. On the other hand, the situation of war has posed challenges to our development journey. We are already facing the challenges of climate change, and now there are also concerns about health security, food security, and energy security,” he said. “Terrorism, extremism and separatism remain a serious threat to our societies. Technology divide and new economic and social challenges related to technology are also emerging,” he added. Modi also called upon all the countries of the Global South – countries that were still lagging behind the rest in prosperity – to approach the ‘Summit of the Future’ at the United Nations next month in a manner that raises the voice of the Global South there. Inaugurating the foreign ministers’ session at the summit after Modi’s address, Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar said that countries of the Global South would define their interests at the summit at a time when they are impacted by multiple conflicts, stresses and tensions, adding that it was important that their concerns and interests get well-articulated at the UN summit in New York next month. Jaishankar also emphasised the “obsolescence” of the extant multilateral institutions in his address, calling for revitalised multilateralism. “It is an undeniable fact that even as the global order faced critical challenges, solutions did not emerge from the multilateral domain. The reason is both the obsolescence and the polarisation of multilateral organisations. Here too, India has argued for reformed multilateralism and sought reform of Multilateral Development Banks through the G20. As a group, we need to press home our case,” he said. Promising full support and cooperation from India, Modi earlier said that the strength of the Global South lies in unity. “The Voice of Global South Summit is a platform where we are giving voice to the needs and aspirations of those who have been unheard till now. I believe that our strength lies in our unity, and with the power of this unity we are moving towards a new direction,” he said. Referring to the Summit of the Future being held at the UN next month, Modi said, “Can we all together take a positive approach so that the voice of the Global South is raised in this pact (for the future)?” He underlined that the need of the hour was that countries of the Global South unite, speak together in one voice and become one another’s strength. “Let us together get recognition for two-thirds of humanity,” Modi said. India, Modi said, was committed to sharing its experiences and capabilities with all the countries of the Global South. “We want to promote mutual trade, inclusive development, progress of Sustainable Development Goals, and women-led development. In the last few years, our cooperation has been boosted on infrastructure, digital and energy connectivity,” the Prime Minister added. Recalling the G-20 Summit held in India last year, Modi said, “In 2022, when India assumed the G-20 presidency, we had resolved that we would give a new shape to the G-20. The Voice of Global South Summit became a platform where we openly discussed the problems and priorities related to development. India prepared the G-20 agenda based on the hopes, aspirations and priorities of the Global South, and took the G-20 forward with an inclusive and development-focused approach. The biggest example of this was the historic moment when the African Union assumed permanent membership in the G-20.” “We have taken the initiative to connect various countries of the Global South with the Unified Payments Interface, i.e. UPI. Our partnership has made significant progress in the areas of education, capacity building and skilling,” he said. Calling Digital Public Infrastructure a revolution in inclusive development, Modi said that the Global DPI Repository, created under India’s G-20 presidency, was the first-ever multilateral consensus on DPI. Highlighting India’s contribution to the Global South, Modi said, “We are happy that agreements have been signed to share the ‘India Stack’ with 12 partners from the Global South. To accelerate DPI in the Global South, we have created a Social Impact Fund. India will make an initial contribution of $25 million to it. Our mission for health security is One World One Health. And our vision is ‘Arogya Maitri’, i.e., ‘Friendship for Health’.” PM Modi said India has fulfilled this friendship by supporting hospitals, dialysis machines, life-saving medicines and Jan Aushadhi Kendras in Africa and Pacific Island countries. “In times of humanitarian crisis, India is helping its friendly countries as a first responder. Whether it is the volcanic eruption in Papua New Guinea or the flood in Kenya. We have also provided humanitarian assistance in conflict areas like Gaza and Ukraine,” he added. Jaishankar recalled that India highlighted Just Energy Transitions during its G-20 presidency. “We must work together as a family towards facilitating the flow of low-cost financing and critical technologies to the Global South,” he said, saying that adapting to climate change would be deliberated upon during the present summit. He underlined that India’s experiences of the digital transformation would “be of interest to Global South partners”. “They could also benefit from intra-South digital exchanges and cooperation,” he added. Jaishankar asserted that challenges like the pandemic, climate events and conflicts underlined the need for reliable and resilient supply chains, adding, “Not just that, there is also an acute need to diversify production itself in various domains to de-risk the international economy. What we earlier argued for in terms of socio-economic justice is today an equally compelling logic for the entire world in terms of predictability.”
