 "'India mattering more and more...': EAM Jaishankar says India's G20 Presidency has expectations, responsibilities")
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that India has assumed the G20 presidency at a moment when the country is mattering more and more to the world.
Addressing the students at Hindu College on G20 Presidency and its global impact, he said, “…It is mattering more to the world partly because of our economic achievements as we have now become the number five economy… We are today recognised as essential to the global workplace, to the global talent pool. It matters because we also today have demonstrated a capability. We have demonstrated a capability of helping other countries…Therefore India’s presidency of the G20 has expectations and responsibilities which are very exceptional.” Listing out the achievements, he said India today is seen as a responsible and innovative country which is actually driving the global progress.
“We have changed the world’s thinking about solar energy through the International Solar Alliance. Today we are trying to change the world’s food habits through the International Year of Millets. We have created a collective way of responding to disasters through a coalition of disaster response… So the whole perception today of India is not just a happening place where these big leaps of technology are made. It is also a place, a country, which is today seen as responsible, which is seen as innovative, which is seen as actually driving global progress…,” said the minister. “So I am very confident that when one day you will all look back, you will all remember 2023 as a big year for India, as a year when our G20 Presidency put us on a different place in the map of the world…,” he added. On Chandrayaan-3’s successful landing on lunar surface, he said, “At the BRICS Summit, we were physically present there but we were mentally in Bengaluru because all the while, the thoughts in PM’s mind, in ours as well, was Chandrayaan…But that evening, there was only one topic of conversation, that topic of conversation was the Chandrayaan landing. The greatest satisfaction for me that day was this sense from all the leaders that India has done it…” Talking about India’s bid for the permanent seat at the UNSC, he said that the the world’s largest country in terms of population and the fifth-largest economy cannot be kept out it. “…The present United Nations architecture was formed in the 1940s. There were 50 member countries of the UN back then, and now there are more than 200 countries. So there will be changes…The world’s largest country in terms of population and the fifth-largest economy cannot be kept out of this and if it is kept out, there will be questions raised on the credibility of the United Nations. History is on our side, and the UN will change. Forces who are blocking it will keep trying but eventually it will happen,” said the External Affairs Minister.
On the Ukraine-Russia conflict, Jaishankar said nobody wants this conflict. “The sentiment in the world today is for peace. We are not neutral, we are in favour of peace and the world is with us…,” said the minister. With inputs from agencies