January 7, 2023

IANS - United Nations

The issues to be raised at next week's virtual Voice of the South Summit announced by India, align with matters that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has been strongly advocating, according to his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

On Friday, India announced that the Voice of the South Summit with the expected participation of 120 countries will discuss global issues from the perspective of developing countries.

Dujarric said that on the issues on its agenda, Guterres "has been very vocal about and flagging how much the developing countries have been hurt by the conflict in Ukraine, by the unequal approach to solving the Covid crisis, debt relief and so on".

India, which is the president of the G20, a group of major industrialised and emerging economies, is taking the initiative to animate the views of the other developing countries on urgent global issues before the group that dominates the global economy.

The inaugural meeting of heads of state or government presided over by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 12 will be on the summit's theme, "Voice of Global South --for Human-Centric Development", and the concluding session for leaders on the next day will be on "Unity of Voice-Unity of Purpose".

In between, the agenda has specialised breakout sessions for foreign, finance, health, education, commerce and, energy ministers.

Announcing the summit, Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra said it is inspired by India's philosophy of 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' (The World Is a Family) and follows Modi's vision of "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas aur Sabka Prayasa" (With All, Development for All, Hope for All and Endeavour for All).

Modi has pitched for leadership of the developed countries based on development and cooperation rather than on political polarisation.

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