The Prime Minister has stressed upon India’s advocacy for the Global South and raising their concerns at all multilateral forums including the G20.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that it is the first time the troika of G20 is with three members of the Global South - Indonesia, India and Brazil - and this can significantly advance the interests of the developing world. The troika refers to the grouping of three countries based on the previous, current and incoming G20 Presidencies. Where India is the current chair of the group of 20 leading economies, the country's predecessor was Indonesia and its successor will be Brazil.
"For the first time in the history of G20, the troika is with the developing world—Indonesia, India, and Brazil. This troika can amplify the voice of the developing world, at a crucial time when there are increased tensions due to global geopolitics," Modi said in a conversation with Network18.
The Prime Minister stressed upon India’s advocacy for the Global South and raising their concerns at all multilateral forums including the G20. "These are countries with which we empathise. Since we too are part of the developing world, we understand their aspirations," he said.
"As soon as we became the President of the G20, we held the Voice of Global South Summit, which made it clear that we were a voice for the inclusion of those who felt excluded from the global discourse and institutional priorities," Modi pointed out.
Equitable trade policies are "certainly a key area of thrust at the G20", as this directly benefits the whole world in the long term, Modi said.
As part of its G20 Presidency, India has been supporting agendas that promote a stable, transparent and fair-trade regime that benefits everyone, the prime minister underlined.
"The essential role of the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at its core has been acknowledged while also being committed to working towards necessary reforms, including strengthening WTO rules, restoring the dispute settlement mechanism and concluding new mutually beneficial WTO agreements," Modi said.
Modi, while advocating for a strengthened WTO, also said that there is a need for "democratising international relations", and "by not making government-to-government relations the only medium of contact".
Apart from pushing for equitable trade, India has also raised concern about the debt vulnerabilities of developing countries. "We are working on strengthening multilateral coordination to facilitate coordinated debt treatment for debt-distressed countries," Modi said.
G20, similar to other multilateral forums, has "scope of improvement", the prime minister said, but added that it would be unfair for India as the chair to evaluate its performance.
"Soon, the G20 will be nearing 25 years of establishment. Such a milestone is a good opportunity to evaluate what objectives the G20 set out with and how far it has been able to achieve them. Such introspection is a necessity for every institution," Modi said.
The prime minister added that it would be a "good idea" to seek the views of nations outside the G20, "especially from the Global South", when it reaches the milestone of 25 years.
"Such inputs would be very valuable to chart the future course for the next 25 years," he underlined.
Modi would, notably, be hosting the G20 heads of state for the leaders' summit scheduled in New Delhi on September 9-10.