External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said on Thursday that the chair summary outlined the concerns of the Global South and that “it is just on two paragraphs that were not able to get everybody on the same page.” He mentioned that there were differences on issues pertaining to the Ukraine conflict in the G20 document.
Highlighting that there were “issues concerning the Ukraine conflict on which there were divergences” EAM said, “The bulk of issues, we were able to get an outcome document. There was a chair summary because there were differences on the Ukraine issue which could not reconcile various parties who held differing positions.”
Jaishankar noted that the impact of the conflict on food security and the cost of fertilizer were among the key areas for the Indian presidency.
“The G20 meetings discussed the challenges of Russia and Ukraine issues and PM Modi advised us to realise ‘what unites us and what divides us … These meetings have been affected by geopolitical tensions. PM Modi urged that we had a responsibility for those who were not in the room,” said the EAM.
“There were five important points in the Prime Minister’s address. One, he noted that multilateralism is in crisis today. And, in terms of preventing future wars and fostering international cooperation which were two primary tasks it had failed. The second point he made was that it is important to give a voice to the Global South because world was sinking … a lot of countries actually regressing on their sustainable goals pathway were witnessing challenging debts,” he added.
He reiterated PM Modi’s concerns about the challenges that the participating countries should address which included the impact of the pandemic, the lives lost in natural disasters, the breakdown of global supply chains, debt and financial crisis.
He said that G20 group have individually and collectively an obligation to contribute to international growth and prosperity, adding that these can be implemented through sustainable partnerships and goodwill initiatives.
