Voice of the Global South Summit
India is hosting the ‘Voice of the Global South Summit’ under the theme “Unity of Voice, Unity of Purpose” on 12-13 January 2023. An Inaugural Leaders’ Session hosted by the Prime Minister of India H.E. Mr. Narendra Modi today was addressed virtually by the President of Vietnam H.E. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc. The theme of the session was “The Voice of South: For Human Centric Development”. The Leaders’ meeting was also addressed by the Presidents of the Guyana, Mozambique, Senegal, Uzbekistan, and Prime Ministers of Bangladesh, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea and Mongolia.
In the backdrop of various global economic and geopolitical challenges, India feels the world is facing the risk of losing global focus on the development imperatives of developing countries; and strongly believes that a consultative and outcome-oriented approach is the need of the hour. India believes that views and perspectives of the large number of countries outside the G20 should be included in the discussions and outcomes across various verticals. As G20 President, India feels the Global South Summit represents Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s belief that India’s G20 Presidency should be shaped in consultation with not just our G20 partners, but also our fellow-travellers in the Global South, whose voice often goes unrepresented.
The Summit brought together countries of the Global South to share their perspectives and priorities on a common platform. The Summit aimed to collate valuable inputs from fellow developing countries, which can be articulated in the G-20 deliberations later this year under India’s Presidency of G20. The Summit generated ideas from Vietnam and other participating countries for consideration globally, including at the G20 Summit and related Ministerial meetings in diverse domains during the year 2023.
During his remarks at the Inaugural Leaders’ meeting, Prime Minister Modi said the Global South have the largest stakes in the future; three fourths of humanity lives in Global South countries. We should also have equivalent voice; we should try to shape the emerging order. He also said that most of the global challenges such as Covid pandemic, climate change, terrorism and the Ukraine conflict have not been created by the Global South but they have affected them more and search for their solutions does not factor in their role. He added that as India begins its G20 Presidency this year, its aim was to amplify the voice of the Global South. He emphasized on the need to redesign global political and financial governance that can remove inequities, enlarge opportunities, support growth and spread progress and prosperity. He also emphasized to come together to call for a global agenda of Respond, Recognize, Respect, Reform to re-energize the world and also underscored on the importance of setting its own tone by the Voice of the Global South.
During the meeting, the President of Vietnam H.E. Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc referred to the unprecedented challenges such as disruption in supply chains, energy, food and debt crisis due climate change, geo-political changes, short-term crisis and in 2023, the bleak world economic and financial landscape may cause challenges to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. He advocated on need for the reform of global governance system, including UN, in order to elevating the status, voice and interests of developing countries among other issues. He also emphasized on need to work together to effectively handling non-traditional security challenges such as climate change, energy, food, water and cyber security. He said Vietnam can actively contribute to global food security through South-South and tripartite cooperation. He also called upon to respect sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all states without interfering in the internal affairs and use of force.
The Prime Minister of India said that this Voice of Global South Summit was a collective effort for gaining noble ideas for our collective future and if they worked together, they could get the global agenda and seek to distil action points for the Global South.
Hanoi
12 January 2023
