Kampala [Uganda]: India is making efforts to include concerns of the Global South in the G20 framework under its presidency, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in Uganda’s Kampala.
Jaishankar, who is on a visit to Uganda and Mozambique on Tuesday addressed members of the Parliamentary Forum on Indian Affairs in Uganda.
“We (India) are doing it differently in the sense that no other chair of G-20 made an effort to consult all the countries of the Global South and ask it saying, look, you are not on the table. So what is your interest, what are the things you want? What are your concerns that we can put on the table on your behalf? We went through this very, very detailed, very exhaustive exercise in the month of January,” he said
The External Affairs Minister also stated that India would like to use its G-20 presidency to get the influential forum focused on its mandate of global growth and development issues.
“And of course, naturally, Uganda was participant as well. And today we would like to use the G-20 presidency really to get that forum to focus on what is its remedy, what was its mandate, which is global growth and global development issues, which are very important for you. Issues of green growth, issues of debt, issues of health, issues of SDG, developmental agenda, issues of digital delivery. I think all these are really the issues on which we would like the G-20 to focus,” Jaishankar said.
India assumed the Presidency of the G20 for one year from December 1 last year. The G20 Summit will be held in New Delhi on September 9-10 this year.
External Affairs Minister reiterated India’s full support to Uganda for a very successful chairship of the Non-Alignment Movement.
Uganda was endorsed to chair the Non-Aligned Movement on behalf of Africa for the period from 2022 to 2025.
The NAM chair position rotates every three years during summit conferences. The chair of the movement is assisted by both the former and incoming chairs. According to the movement, this structure represents its past, present and future.
Jaishnkar also announced that he will participate in the inauguration of the National Forensic Research University, whose first campus is opening in Uganda.
The minister who is on a two-nation visit from April 10-15, participated in the virtual groundbreaking ceremony of solar-powered piped drinking water supply systems funded by India Exim Bank in Uganda, on Tuesday.
Taking to Twitter, Jaishankar said, “This project will provide safe and sustainable water supply to half a million Ugandans across 20 rural districts.”
Later on Jaishankar met the Indian business community in Uganda.
“Appreciated their contribution to India-Uganda bilateral relationship.
Encouraged them to continue building the bridge of our business ties that capture the growth and development in the two countries,” Jaishankar said in a tweet.
From April 13-15, Jaishankar will be in Mozambique. “This will be the first-ever visit by an External Affairs Minister of India to the Republic of Mozambique,” stated the MEA release.
During the visit, he will meet Mozambique’s top leadership and co-chair the 5th Session of the Joint Commission Meeting with Mozambican Foreign Minister Veronica Macamo.
The EAM is expected to meet several other ministers and representatives of the Assembly of Mozambique.
-Dr. M Shahid Siddiqui (PhD), Follow via Twitter @shahidsiddiqui
