Centre to leverage G20 presidency to boost India's global clout: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar

HYDERABAD: Spelling out PM Narendra Modi-led government's intention to leverage G20 presidency to enhance India's global influence, external affairs minister S Jaishankar said, G20 meetings will no longer be a typical Delhi-centric government programme, but will set the agenda for the emerging global order - Make the world ready for India and India ready for the world.
Addressing a meeting organized by Nationalist Thinkers Forum here, he said, "We have held the G20 presidency in the past too, but this time we'll do it differently. It won't be a typical 'sarkari' Delhi programme, but will expose global influencers to our culture and society. There would be around 200 meetings throughout the year with 56 Indian cities playing host."
Buttressing the need for the world to be ready for India, he said, "There's a big change in how the world views our resolve and freedom. I can cite the 26/11 attacks and Balakot surgical strikes to emphasise our handling of crises. The Prime Minister displayed boldness in deploying forces along the Chinese border even during the pandemic and also built infrastructure along the LAC."
He also stated India is steadfast in its resolve to buy fuel from outside sources. "In the middle of the crisis, we explained to the world that our domestic consumers are important to us," he said.
Jaishankar said the Central government cushioned consumers as much as possible from fuel price hikes and taken measures to keep inflation down. "Today, the world has learnt a lesson that security means not just physical and economic security, but also health and food security. So, we have to find a way to de-risk the global economy, the way we would derisk a sector, the way we would derisk a business. That is a very major concern of G20 meetings," he said.
He observed that many nations are taking note of India's extensive use of digital delivery. "We have Jan Dhan accounts and schemes implemented through e-portals with the beneficiary count exceeding Europe's population. For the outside world, we are half the world and they respect our potential. We earned global honour in way we handled vaccine delivery during the pandemic," he said.
According to the minister, India will be the third biggest economy and IMF's observation that India will spur 15% of global economic growth over the next year is viewed as significant. The world knows more about our unicorns than we do, he said. He also took a dig at past non-NDA governments, terming them "corrupt and inefficient with a leakage problem". "We have fixed leaks in grassroots trickledown with technology and changing parties in government," he said.
According to Jaishankar, the world is watching India as first responder to the crisis.