The Voice of Global South Summit kicked off on Thursday with the inaugural Leaders’ Session which was hosted by Prime minister Narendra Modi and joined by leaders of 10 countries from across the globe.
India is hosting the two-day summit on January 12th and 13th. The summit intends to bring together countries from the Global South to share their perspectives and priorities on a common platform on a variety of issues. More than 120 countries have been invited to this summit.
Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina, The President of Senegal Macky Sall, President of Guyana Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Mongolia’s PM Luvsannamsrai Oyun-Erdene, Cambodian PM Hun Sen, Vietnamese President Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha attended the inaugural session along with PM Modi.
Environment Ministers’ Session of the #VoiceOfGlobalSouth Summit concludes.
Ministers from 🇪🇹🇬🇳🇰🇮🇰🇬🇲🇬🇲🇩🇲🇰🇵🇼🇲🇭🇸🇹🇸🇨🇹🇯🇹🇬🇹🇻 joined @byadavbjp @moefcc in sharing ideas and best practices for balancing growth with environment friendly lifestyles. pic.twitter.com/1zSxqxr5BR
— Arindam Bagchi (@MEAIndia) January 12, 2023
“PM @narendramodi is joined by leaders of 10 countries from across the globeleaders of 10 countries from across the globe in deliberations on working towards building a prosperous future,” the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs of India Arindam Bagchi said.
Uzbekistan President Shavkat Mirziyoyev stated, “The summit aims to develop concrete proposals for deepening mutually beneficial cooperation to promote the interests and solve urgent problems of developing countries, including in the economy, ecology, energy and food security, healthcare, human resource development, innovation, tourism, and other areas.”
In his concluding remarks to the first session, PM Modi said that the countries of the Global South will drive the world economy in the 21st century.
This summit envisages ten sessions, out of which four would be held on Thursday and six on Friday. Each session is expected to witness the participation of leaders and ministers from 10-20 countries.
External affairs minister Dr S Jaishankar has underlined the pressure on the Global South in the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war during his statements at the UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine in September.
“In a globalised world, the impact of the conflict is being felt even in distant regions. We have all experienced its consequences in terms of surging costs and actual shortages of food grains, fertilisers, and fuel,” Dr Jaishankar said.
“On this score too, there are good grounds to be worried about what awaits us. The Global South, especially, is feeling the pain very acutely,” the minister added.