Indian External Affairs Minister, S Jaishankar, who chaired two sessions of discussions at the G20 Foreign Ministers meeting on March 2, 2023 said that the twenty countries that make up the G20 were in agreement on a range of global issues.
Speaking at a press meet after the meeting, Jaishankar said, “Despite the challenges of the divergent positions on the conflict in Ukraine, the G20 foreign ministers were able to come to a consensus on addressing key challenges.”
According to the outcome document, the issues agreed upon included strengthening multilateralism, food and energy security, ambitious climate and environmental action, deepening cooperation on sustainable development, counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, global health, global talent pool, humanitarian assistance and disaster risk reduction, as well as gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The Indian Minister highlighted that a key goal of the meeting was to give voice to the Global South, developing countries which have suffered the most during the pandemic and are bearing the brunt of the war. “It has been our endeavour to ensure that the voice of the global South is heard on the G20 table. We are also particularly glad that to see so many of our friends and partners from the global south on the table, because India as president had invited them.”
Nine countries were invited to the foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi, they include, Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and the United Arab Emirates.
The event, which was the largest gathering of foreign ministers by any G20 presidency, concluded with many countries engaging in bilateral talks on the sidelines including an “unexpected” meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. Meanwhile, Japanese Foreign Minister skipped the G20 meet but will be attending the Quad meeting in India on March 3.
