General Assembly General Assembly

45th Annual Meeting of the G-77 Foreign Ministers

 

“Global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the obstacles

it poses to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and achievement of the SDGs”

 

India Statement by Ambassador T.S. Tirumurti,

Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations

 

(for Dr. S. Jaishankar, External Affairs Minister)

 

30 November, 2021

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H.E. Foreign Minister of the Republic of Guinea and Chair of G-77,

Distinguished Members of G-77,

 

I convey warm greetings from our External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar.

 

2. I would like to thank Republic of Guinea for their leadership in navigating the Group of 77 through a challenging year.

 

3. The COVID pandemic has threatened to reverse the decades of development progress and exacerbate poverty across the globe.  Countries from G-77 will be hardest hit.  This is a time for a resolute global response on tackling the pandemic through all means available and move forward on resilience and recovery.

 

4. In the last one year, India has joined the global efforts to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Prime Minister Modi’s call for "One Earth One Health” approach underlines our continuing commitment, already evident in the supply of medicines to over 150 countries; and vaccines to many nations in the developing world. India is gearing up to produce vaccines for the world and we have pledged to make our production and delivery capacity available for the greater good of humanity. Just yesterday, India has announced that it stands ready to support affected countries in Africa to deal with Omicron variant.

 

5. The enormous power of digital and information technology has been a key component of global response to Covid. Utilizing our strength in the digital space, our Government has decided to share with the world, India-developed Co-WIN App, to provide digital support to better organize vaccination drives. We cannot afford a vaccine-divide.

 

6. At this juncture, we need to embrace citizen-centric measures. Cost-effective and innovative developmental initiatives like increasing use of digitisation is the way to go forward to build back better.

 

7. The pandemic has tested the resilience of multilateral institutions and has laid bare their shortcomings.  In the face of these shortcomings, the call for reformed multilateralism, including reform of UN Security Council, has now become stronger than ever before.

 

Mr. Chair,

 

8. With the end of COVID nowhere in sight, international institutions and individual countries are struggling to refocus on the 2030 agenda of sustainable development, Paris Agreement and financing for development framework, which remain fundamental to recovery. Humanitarian requirements have understandably been given high priority. This has further reduced funds available for achievement of SDGs and the larger development goals.

 

9. We call on developed countries to do more and focus equitably on the three pillars of sustainable development, namely economic, social and environment. Focussing on one pillar to the exclusion of the others will only serve to distort recovery and, in fact, become counter-productive.  We should be equally careful not to undermine the collective progress envisaged in the Glasgow Climate Pact.  Developed countries cannot be allowed to pass on their obligations to developing countries.

 

Mr. Chair,

 

10. India as a founding member of G-77, is walking the talk on South-South cooperation.  We have never let geography limit our approach to assist the developing world. India-CARICOM Leaders Meeting, India-Pacific Islands Summit, India-ASEAN Summits, India-Africa Forum Summits and other Summits have further strengthened the special bonding between India and other developing countries.

 

11. India’s development cooperation approach is guided by our partners’ development priorities.  Our assistance does not create indebtedness and is without conditionalities.  Our concessional Lines of Credit of over US$ 30 billion and our substantial grants-in-aid projects have been designed with this in mind. Our flagship training and capacity building project under Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) is providing training to above 13,000 students annually, majority from the developing world. The US$ 150 million India-UN Development Partnership Fund continues to support South-owned and South-led transformational sustainable development projects with a focus on LDCs, LLDCs and SIDS.

 

Mr. Chair,

 

12. In the spirit of “World Is One Family”, India’s approach will continue to be human-centric, based on principles of mutual respect and national ownership with a commitment to sustainable development for all, voicing the collective interest of the developing world. We believe strongly in leaving no one behind.

 

13. As we collectively work together to strengthen this Grouping of the Global South, it is also equally important that our working methods stand the test of time and are seen to be credible, open, consultative and transparent. We need to work towards ensuring that our time tested and established working methods are not overlooked in our pursuit of the common minimum denominator that we often strive for.

 

14. In conclusion, I would like to reiterate India’s steadfast commitment to work with our partners in the G-77 towards a resilient and sustainable recovery from COVID-19.

 

Thank you.

 

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