According to the External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, the primary goal of G20 is to progress economic growth and development, which cannot happen without addressing the critical issues of the Global South.
“For a variety of reasons that range from scale, subsidy, technology, human resources & strategic choices, the Global South was reduced to being a consumer rather than a producer,” Jaishankar stated in his speech at the B20 Summit held by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) before the September 9–10 G20 Summit.
He further said, “It is, however, an undeniable reality that the international system remains dominated by the Global North. This is naturally reflected in the composition of G20 as well. Perhaps this mattered less when the globalisation process appeared to offer more opportunities but as its inequities and unevenness became more apparent and then as we saw the Covid pandemic take a horrific toll across the world, the need to focus on developing countries became more compelling”.
“Their involvement was frequently to supply raw materials for production elsewhere. They not only did not fully benefit from economic progress, but they frequently also found themselves burdened with unsustainable debts resulting from murky efforts”, he added.
He observed that ongoing global concerns, such as the impact of the Ukraine conflict on food, energy, and fertiliser security, have contributed to the difficulties. Jaishankar said “Today’s India is the one where the world simultaneously witnesses experimentation, scaling up, deployment, innovation and breakthroughs. I stress these developments not only because they solve 1/6th of the world’s problems, but because they provide replicable models for the rest of the Global South”.
He continued “From Fiji and Myanmar to Mozambique, Yemen, and Türkiye, “We have also stepped forward as the first responder in disaster, emergency, and conflict situations”. The B20 Summit India brings together politicians, business leaders, and experts from around the world to deliberate and discuss the B20 India Communique.
