The North News
New Delhi, September 24
External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar on Wednesday warned that multilateral institutions were being weakened at a time when collective solutions were most needed. “The very concept of multilateralism is under attack. International organisations are being rendered ineffective or starved of resources. The building blocks of the contemporary order are starting to come apart,” he said. The minister outlined India’s vision for a united Global South, based on fairer economic practices, resilient supply chains, South-South cooperation in technology and trade, and urgent conflict resolution to safeguard food and energy security.
He further said that the international system was failing developing countries at a time of rising global uncertainty. “We meet in increasingly uncertain times, when the state of the world is a cause for mounting concern,” Jaishankar said a gathering of like-minded Global South nations on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. “The Global South is confronted with challenges that have intensified in the first half of this decade – from the shocks of the Covid pandemic to conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, climate extremes, volatile trade and investment flows, and the slowdown of the sustainable development goals agenda.” He said the rights and expectations of developing nations, built over decades, were now “under challenge”.
Jaishankar called for greater sharing of individual strengths such as vaccine production, digital infrastructure, and agricultural practices, as well as fresh initiatives in climate action that reflect the priorities of the Global South. Jaishankar also stressed the need to harness new technologies, including artificial intelligence, and reiterated India’s demand for comprehensive reform of the United Nations and the wider multilateral system.
