PM Modi urges G20 leaders to reform Security Council

PM Modi urges G20 leaders to reform Security Council

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday urged world leaders congregated at the G20 leaders’ summit to make global structures, including the UN Security Council, reflective of current realities.

In the midst of speaking at a summit session, Modi moulded India’s claim for permanent membership of the UNSC unambiguous and cautioned it is a natural law that individuals and institutions not adapting to transform tend to lose their relevance over time. The five permanent UN members with veto power in the world body are the US, UK, France, Russia and China.

Modi’s call to secure a seat for India at the UNSC comes contra the backdrop of India presenting itself as the voice of the Global South, championing the cause of developing and least developed countries. This comes a day after G20 nations according permanent membership to the 55-member African Union in G20, based on a proposal by India.

India and Brazil, which holds the next G20 presidency, also issued a joint statement in which Modi and Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva reaffirmed their commitment to the comprehensive reform of the UN Security Council, including its expansion in the permanent and non-permanent categories, with increased representation of developing countries in both. The leaders reiterated their mutual support for their countries’ permanent membership in an expanded UNSC.

Modi also called for reforms at multilateral banks, global regulations on crypto assets, responsible human-centric AI governance and global cooperation in cyber-security. In his concluding remarks at the two-day G20 leaders’ summit, he proposed another G20 meeting in November when Brazil formally takes over the grouping’s presidency.

Modi apprised the visiting leaders that today’s world is vastly diverse from when the UN was set up. UN had 51 founding members initially,as against nearly 200 members, Modi as of now.

He added in his bilingual speech that, however, number of permanent members in the UNSC remains intact Ever since then, the world has transformed in every respect. Be it in transportation, communication, health or education, each sector has undergone a transformation. These new realities need to be reflected in our new global structure.

He further went on to add that it is natural law that persons and institutions not adapting to transform, lose their relevance. With an open mind, we have to consider why, in recent years, many regional forums have emerged and proving to be effective.

The PM also made a suggestion for a human-centric vision for world leaders rather than a “GDP-centric” one. India, like many other countries, has lots to share with the rest of the world and referred to New Delhi’s commitment to share data from the Chandrayaan mission for the benefit of humanity.

The Prime minister laid emphasis evolving a regulatory framework for crypto assets. The cryptocurrency field has come up as a new topic for everyone – social order, monetary and financial stability.

Hence, we need to develop global standards to regulate crypto-currencies. We have the Basel standards on bank regulation in front of us as a model.

The leaders’ summit also offered Indian and visiting leaders opportunity to hold bilateral talks on many issues, including investments, clean energy, trade, technology, people-to-people linkage, space, biofuels, critical minerals, mobility of skilled personnel and infrastructure. That included a working lunch that Modi held with French president Emmanuel Macron and meetings with Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau, president of Comores and president-in-office of the African Union Azali Assoumani, prime minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands and president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.

Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman also took the opportunity to hold bilateral meetings, including with Asian Development Bank President Masasugu Asakawa. Sitharaman, in a social media post, highlighted the need for additional push by the multilateral development bank ecosystem to step up the implementation of their Capital Adequacy Framework.

PM Modi’s concluding remark at the summit was that in the remaining two months and a half of India’s G20 presidency, the grouping will attempt to advance its shared goals.

Modi also asserted that in the proposed virtual session in November, the decisions taken at the current leaders’ session can be reviewed.

News Edit K.V.Raman