Accessibility to energy and food grains will be taken strongly at G20: S Jaishankar
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Nicosia: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said during India's G20 presidency, the country will take up the issue of affordability and accessibility to energy, food grains, and fertilisers "very strongly". He underlined that the economies of the Global South have been impacted.
Speaking at a business event in Cyprus, he said the efficiency and the delivery of global supply chains is a common concern today for all countries in the world. He is on his first official visit to Cyprus as both countries are celebrating 60 years of diplomatic relations.
He stated that affordability and accessibility to energy, food grains, and fertilisers is not just India's but the Global South's concern. "It's certainly a worry that we intend to take up very strongly during the presidency of the G20 which we have taken on the first of December."
He added that India is also working on tackling the climate change issue because it is a common concern across the globe. "The last few years have brought home to each one of us that this is not a hypothetical threat. This is not something that we said would happen one day in the future. I think for fragile topographies, it is of growing concern".
He noted that India is home to 17% of the world's population but only contributes 5% of the world's emissions. "But our commitment to tackling climate change is 100%. We have led not just by expanding massively our renewables at home, one of the big initiatives we are currently working on is to use the G20 presidency to advance that is actually to advocate the lifestyle change."
Speaking about India's sustainable development commitments, he said India among the G20 countries is on course to deliver before time on whatever we have agreed to do in the Paris agreement.
He added that India and Cyprus have seven areas of cooperation and one of them is finance. "Cyprus is an important pathway for financial flows into India. And if you're looking at an economy, which is going to grow at six-and-a-half percent plus. We are a partner of growing relevance." The union minister further spoke of shipping, tourism, the knowledge economy, and the culture of mobility.
India assumed the G20 Presidency on December 1 and the next Summit at the level of Heads of State/Government is scheduled to be held on September 9 and 10, 2023 in New Delhi.