Pune:
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said that Global South countries have a “high degree” of trust and expectations from India.
Speaking at an interactive session with students at a university in Pune today, S Jaishankar said: “What do we mean by the Global South? We mean largely countries that have been colonized, that have gained their independence or are still developing, that would be largely low-income countries… They have a high degree of trust and expectation in India, and for a reason. “
The Foreign Secretary noted three instances in recent years where India stood behind the countries of the South, including Covid times.
He recalled that New Delhi supplied COVID-19 vaccines to many countries at a time when India was still vaccinating its own population.
“I can give you three examples. In much of the Global South, people remember that during COVID, when the developed world was actually stockpiling vaccines, many of them got their first vaccines from India, and they got their vaccines from India when India was still vaccinating its own people , I cannot exaggerate the emotional impact of this on the world,” said S Jaishankar.
During his conversation, he also mentioned that the African Union is joining the G20 under New Delhi's presidency, saying that African countries think India has a 'conscience'.
“A second example was Ukraine… A third example would be during our G20. For years, the African Union wanted a seat in the G20. Every G20 would start like this, on the first day of the G20, everyone tells the African. Union don't have to worry, during this meeting we will take care of you, but at the end of the meeting, if nothing happened, they say: sorry, this time we couldn't do it, next time we will look after it look… We took this thing up and pushed it in a way that everyone had to accept it. The African countries think that India has a conscience, India today has confidence…,” the Foreign Minister said.
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