Jaishankar says today's India able to bridge North-South divide, East-West polarisation; seen as solution provider

New York: During its G20 presidency this year, India was able to bridge the North-South divide and East-West polarisation and encourage the most powerful nations in the world to confront and commit to addressing challenges facing humanity today, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Tuesday.

The minister, currently in New York to attend the 78th UN General Assembly session, during his video address at the University Connect Programme at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi -- the venue of this year's G20 Leaders' Summit -- said India's G20 presidency walked the talk on difficult issues and pushed for collective action.

"When we say, One World, One Family, One Future, the world believes us. Today, India is seen as a solution provider, one that bridges divides," the minister said while talking about the outcomes of the successful G20 Leaders' Summit held on September 9-10.

"We were able to bridge the North-South divide and East-West polarisation and encourage the most powerful nations in the world to confront and commit to addressing challenges facing humanity today. This is captured in the forward-looking New Delhi Declaration. To say that India's G20 presidency walked the talk on difficult issues and pushed for collective action would not be an exaggeration," Jaishankar said.

The New Delhi Leaders Declaration, a significant victory for India's G20 presidency, came amid increasing tensions and divergent views among the G20 member nations over the Ukraine conflict.

The G20 University Connect is an initiative with the aim of building an understanding of India’s G20 Presidency among India’s youth and enhancing their participation in the different G20 events.

Jaishankar said that one of the important factors in the success of the G20 presidency was the enthusiasm and ownership that everyone, especially the youth showed in this national celebration.

"We were able to make the African Union a permanent member of G20, come up with a green development pact, an action plan on sustainable development goals, high-level principles on anti-corruption, and garner support for digital public infrastructure and reform on multilateral development pacts," he said.

Jaishankar said: "The world recognises India's convening power and acceptance of its ideas is a key takeaway." "Our endeavours to make India a developed nation by the centenary of our independence stems from the collective desire to build a more prosperous nation for the future generations. The attainment of this goal is only possible with your full contributions. It is your abilities, your efforts and your achievements that will play a big role in defining the India of 2047," Jaishankar told the audience.

"Our G20 presidency is special and different. We succeeded in taking the G20 out of the capital city and its convention centres and made it a mass movement. It was truly a people's G20 and Jan bhagidari was the central feature of our presidency," the minister added.

"More than 30,000 delegates from 125 countries were witness to our spirit of 'Atithi Devo Bhava' and experienced India that was ready for the world," he said.

"We convened the voice of the Global South Summit. As many as 125 nations shared their concerns and expectations with us. These were taken on board and they really helped us to steer the G20 agenda to issues that are key to global growth and inclusive development," he said.

"We are a country that tables ideas, shapes global issues and forges consensus. As Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi has said, we are a nation that is moving from an era of incremental change to that of disruptive innovations. In today's India, there are 100 unicorns and more than 100,000 startups and these are driving innovations." "India has made a significant move in establishing the Startup-20 Engagement Group. This is the first of its kind of initiative in the G20," he said.

The minister further said that both the developing as well as the developed nations were taking a lot of learning from India as they witnessed transformational changes underway in the country.