External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar highlighted India’s views on key areas of global governance reform during his address in the second G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting of Brazil’s G20 Presidency on the sidelines of the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The meeting was chaired by Brazil president Lula da Silva and attended by President of President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the General Assembly Philemon Yang and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday.
EAM, speaking as a Troika member, highlighted India’s views on the three key areas of global governance reform, which includes reform of the UN and its subsidiary bodies, reform of the International Financial Architecture and reform of the Multilateral Trading System.
Further, Jaishankar recalled that significant strides were made during India’s G20 Presidency wherein the Leaders had called for expanding development and climate finance and had encouraged MDBs to refine their vision, incentive structures, operational approaches and financial capacities, to maximize their developmental impact.
EAM in his speech also said that the United Nations is a prisoner of the past and it must evolve with the world.
“The areas of global governance reform… First is the reform of the UN and its subsidiary bodies. The world has evolved into a smart, interconnected, and multipolar arena, and its members have increased fourfold since UN’s inception. Yet, the UN remains a prisoner of the past. As a result, the UN Security Council struggles to fulfil its mandate of maintaining international peace and stability, undermining its effectiveness and credibility,” he said.
According to Ministry of External Affairs statement, “The Brazilian Presidency’s 2024 G20 Roadmap for better, bigger, and more effective MDBs, builds on the New Delhi mandate and the recommendations of the 2023 G20 Independent Expert Group on Strengthening MDBs.”
“A Call to Action on Global Governance Reform was endorsed by the Foreign Ministers at the meeting,” the statement added.
EAM also spoke on the theme ‘Global Governance Reforms’ and highlighted the urgency for UN reforms to ensure representative, credible and effective multilateralism at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting.
In a post on X, he said, “Spoke at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting in New York today on the theme ‘Global Governance Reforms’. Highlighted the urgency of UN reforms to ensure representative, credible and effective multilateralism. Includes expansion of UNSC in both categories.”
“Noted the imperative of robust, expansive and effective international financial architecture. Spoke about India’s efforts at G20 to reform MDBs to meet aspirations of the developing world. Underlined the challenges of protectionism and market-distorting practices to the international trading system. Called for comprehensive reforms of WTO to ensure a rules-based, non-discriminatory and a fair multilateral trading system,” he added.
