NEW YORK: Global development must be equitable and resist hegemony, India’s external affairs minister said on Tuesday.
“The days when a few nations set the agenda and expect others to fall in line are over,” Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said.
The politician also condemned what he described as unequal contributions to global development, including the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and “an evasion of historical responsibilities” regarding climate action.
India, he said, was part of several emerging alliances and economic blocs, including the I2U2 group, which also includes Israel, the US and the UAE.
The country sought to maintain its old relationships and create new ones, Jaishankar said, something that was evident in the expansion of the strategic security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan and the US — known as the Quad — and the economic bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
“At India’s initiative, the African Union was admitted as a permanent member of the G20,” he said.
“This significant step in reform should inspire the United Nations — a much older organization — to also make the Security Council contemporary.”
India has been a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for 16 years. It is also part of the G4 Alliance, which calls for the reform of the council and the accession to it of Brazil, Germany, India and Japan as permanent members.
“Recently we hosted the creation of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor,” he said.
“The forging of the Global Biofuels Alliance was another notable development. This willingness to work in an open-minded manner on specific domains is now a defining characteristic of the emerging multipolar order.”
Earlier this month, seven countries and the EU signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the creation of the IMEC corridor during the G20 Summit in New Delhi.
The corridor will include two separate paths: an eastern section that will connect India to western Asia and the Middle East, and a northern section that will link west Asia and the Middle East to Europe.
The corridor, which is expected to bring major economic developments to India, will also pass through the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel.
Jaishankar also praised India’s development in the fields of technology, infrastructure and social reform, referencing the country’s first moon landing last month and a bill that will reserve one-third of Indian parliamentary seats for women.
India, which is the world’s most populous country and has the fifth-largest economy, is also the largest contributor to meeting sustainable development goal targets, according to Jaishankar.
