External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said in Uganda’s Kampala that India is working to include concerns of the Global South in the G20 framework during its presidency. On Tuesday, Jaishankar, who is on a visit to Uganda and Mozambique, addressed members of Uganda’s Parliamentary Forum on Indian Affairs.
“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.
From December 1 of last year, India assumed the G20 Presidency for one year. This year’s G20 Summit will be held in New Delhi on September 9-10.
The External Affairs Minister reaffirmed India’s full support for Uganda’s successful presidency of the Non-Alignment Movement.
Uganda was elected to lead the Non-Aligned Movement on behalf of Africa from 2022 to 2025.
The position of NAM chair rotates every three years during summit conferences. The movement’s chair is assisted by both the outgoing and incoming chairs. This structure, according to the movement, represents its past, present, and future.
Jaishnkar has also announced that he will attend the inauguration of the National Forensic Research University, the first campus of which will open in Uganda.
On Tuesday, the minister, who is on a two-nation trip from April 10-15, took part in a virtual groundbreaking ceremony for solar-powered piped drinking water supply systems funded by India Exim Bank in Uganda.
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.
