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India Amongst Most Important Voices, Champion Of Global South: Gates Foundation Top Official

By LokMarg 28th September 2023

Lauding India’s support for emerging economies in the Southern hemisphere and terming it as one of the most important voice and champions of the global south, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation CEO Mark Suzman has said that the foundation sees India’s ability to be a “global leader.”

In an exclusive interview with ANI, Suzman said that models developed in India can accelerate progress globally, especially in the Global South.

“India is clearly one of the most important voices and champions of the Global South. And that’s why it’s a country that we (Gates Foundation) in addition to the strong partnerships we’ve developed over the 20 years, we worked in India, to help drive better health and development outcomes in India. We now see India’s ability to be a global leader in helping rollout and share some of its lessons and best practices in health in digital financial inclusion in agriculture. And that’s something we’re excited to be working on and building on in the years to come,“ Suzman told ANI.

Moreover, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in New York hosted several leaders of the Global South at a special event ‘India-UN for Global South’, highlighting how India is trying to strike a balance in the international system.

Earlier this month the African Union was granted permanent member status in the Group of 20 (G20) top world economies.

Global South is used to refer to developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, while economically developed countries such as the United States, Canada, Europe, Russia, Australia and New Zealand constitute Global North. The African continent is home to about 17 per cent of the world’s population. However, until September this year South Africa had been the only G20 member.

Suzman hailed the G20 grouping for reaching the “groundbreaking” consensus on the role of digital public infrastructure as a critical accelerator of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially in the global south.

“There is a strong opportunity right now, to use that Global South framework in specific areas. We’re particularly focused in areas like health and financial inclusion that focus on the poorest and most vulnerable and we’re certainly looking forward to working with the Government of India to help roll those out in the years to come,” CEO further added.

Suzman’s comments came at the annual “Goalkeepers” conference in New York that was largely focused on improving maternal and newborn health in low-income countries. The foundation’s top offcial also recognized India’s job of prioritizing maternal and child health by Public and private partnerships that have accelerated progress.

“We work very closely with the states particularly of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, which traditionally have had some of the most challenging statistics in terms of maternal and child mortality outcomes, but have recently seen significant progress.”

The foundation also celebrated “goalkeepers”—individuals who are working across the world to address sustainable development goals.

The event was filled with stories of individuals and organizations and their on-the-ground successes, from Yetunde Ayo Oyalowo, a doctor in Lagos, Nigeria who founded a program that sets up mobile clinics in markets and hard-to-reach communities to, Eva Nangalo, a midwife in Uganda. (ANI)

BRICS Remains In Search of an Identity

By Kunal Bose 4th September 2023

The credit for the BRIC acronym goes to the then Goldman Sachs chief economist Jim O’Neill who in a paper in 2001 was quite hopeful about the future of economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China. Riding on the wave of globally shared optimism surrounding the BRIC nations, Goldman Sachs, the American multinational investment bank and financial services giant, launched the BRIC fund in June 2006 with routine hoopla. But by September 2015 – four years ahead of that South Africa came on board to make the acronym one letter bigger BRICS – the growth promise of the group sufficiently faded with Brazilian economy in slums, Russia struggling with low oil and commodity prices in general and China moving far away from double-digit growth.

The global financial crisis of 2008-09 also was a factor responsible for the fund managing a low average annual return of 3 per cent and underperforming the MSCI BRIC index. What, therefore, followed was the merging of the exclusive BRIC fund into a more diversified emerging market fund in October 2015.

At that point the Washington based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a report: “Conflicting interests and the indisputable political, social and cultural differences among the group’s members have kept the BRICS from translating their economic force into collective political power on the global stage… And with economic prospects decreasingly promising, the notion of the BRICS as a political project seems too fragile to stand on its own.”

Then at the launch of BRIC, the hope was the grouping would become the representative voice of the global south and emerge as a rival to G-7. That hope died very young as there never has been much in common in the motley group of five countries – while China and Russia have one party rule with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin always having the last word, India as the world’s largest democracy would look better with the largest minority group not nursing the feeling of always getting a raw deal, Manipur not burning and the space for free airing of views not squeezed. The heterogeneity of BRICS is also underlined by their economic performances.

Referring to the highly contrasting phenomenon, The Economist says: “On average, the GDP of Brazil, Russia and South Africa has grown by less than 1 per cent annually since 2013 (versus around 6 per cent for China and India.)” Then somewhat acerbically, it writes “any investment analyst who picked them among the most promising emerging markets today would be laughed off her Zoom call.” In the meantime, the equation among members of BRICS continues to change. Since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and imposition of sanctions by Western countries, Russia has come to depend on Chinese diplomatic and strategic support like never before. At the same time, Indian refineries continue to reap a bonanza by importing Russian crude at highly discounted prices in the wake of the world’s third largest oil producer with a share of roughly 11 per cent of global supply finding some of its major traditional markets drying up because of sanction. What, however, must be a reason for discomfiture for New Delhi is Moscow virtually coming under Beijing wing.

New Delhi’s uneasiness is heightened by Putin deciding not to attend the G-20 summit in spite of Modi making a request on phone. Putin’s excuse is that he will stay too preoccupied with domestic issues and also overseeing Ukraine war operation. Incidentally, the Russian President absented himself from Johannesburg 15^th BRICS conference for fear of arrest since South Africa being a member of the International Criminal Court would be under obligation to execute the arrest warrant issued against Putin in March for alleged war crimes involving Ukraine. Russia in crisis affecting BRICS relevance in world affairs apart, China and India continuing to find themselves in diametrically opposite praxis on a host of issues are not helping the cause of global south.

This is best illustrated by contradictory statements emanating from New Delhi and Beijing on what led to the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of BRICS Johannesburg conference. The Chinese foreign ministry says the meeting happened following an Indian request provoking a riposte from New Delhi that there was a pending request for a meeting from Beijing.

China has described the Modi-Li conversation as a “candid and in-depth exchange of views.” In diplomatic phraseology, candid does not leave room for amicability. New Delhi, on the other hand, said the conversation was “informal.” The two leaders, as transpired from what emanated from the two capitals, mainly discussed the border issue, which has defied settlement. On the subject, New Delhi says, Modi and Ji have agreed to “direct their relevant officials to intensify efforts at expeditious disengagement and de-escalation.” But Beijing maintains that the two countries will have to “bear in mind the overall interests of their bilateral relations and handle properly the border issue so as to jointly safeguard peace and tranquillity in the border region.”

ALSO READ: BRICS Expansion, Geopolitics And India

Now within a few days of that meeting and the statements on unresolved border issues (contradictory in some ways) that followed, China to India’s disappointment released its 2023 edition of “standard map” laying claims to ownership of Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin. This, however, is not the first time that China has been up to this trick. Is the release of the map showing Indian territories as its own amounts to a Chinese message that it is not committed to restore the April 2020 status quo in eastern Ladakh, where, according to some military veterans, it remains in occupation of around 2,000 sq km of Indian land?

Expectedly, India’s external affairs minister S Jaishankar has been dismissive of the Chinese claim and New Delhi has filed strongest possible protest using diplomatic channels. Jaishankar said: “China has even in the past put out maps which claim territories which are not China’s, which belong to other countries. This is an old habit of theirs… Making absurd claims doesn’t make other people’s territories yours.” Sadly, Beijing’s release of the map ahead of G-20 summit and soon after BRICS meet militates against relationship improvement of mighty neighbours. Chinese diplomacy has always been full of riddles, not easy to decipher. For a change and to India’s satisfaction, China agreed to the BRICS declaration describing the aspirations of India, Brazil and South Africa to play a bigger role in world bodies, including the UN Security Council.

The operative part of the declaration says: “We support a comprehensive reform of the UN, including its Security Council, with a view to making it more democratic, representative, effective and efficient, and to increase the representation of developing countries in the Council’s membership so that it can adequately respond to prevailing global challenges and support the three legitimate aspirations of emerging and developing countries from Africa, Asia and Latin America…” BRICS acknowledgement of G-20 as a premier multilateral forum is also of comfort to India, which this year is doing rotational presidency of the group.

BRICS will now be an 11-member organisation with the induction of four from the Gulf and West Asia comprising United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Iran and Saudi Arabia and Ethiopia from Africa and Argentina from South America. An expanded BRICS will no doubt carry more heft to engage with the West and leave its impact on future economic and trade reforms of the latter. BRICS has wasted much time in haranguing the West, often without provocation, which, however, was ignored.

But that should not have been the case since the grouping not only included the world’s second and fifth largest economies, but BRICS’ share of world GDP is now around 26 per cent, up from 8 per cent in 2001. Moreover, BRICS failed to capitalise on its combined population of 3.2 billion that is 41 per cent of the world. The only concrete thing to have emerged so far from BRICS is the Shanghai based New Development Bank (NDB or BRICS Bank). Well, NDB has not delivered the way it was hoped at its founding in 2015. But it will wrong to undermine the bank in any way. One positive is the joining of three members – Bangladesh, Egypt and the UAE. NDB has so far extended credit of $33 billion to nearly 100 projects. The non-starter was a common currency for BRICS. What is to be accepted is that none of BRICS constituents has the capacity to operate an exchange rate monetary policy regime.

Moreover, because of profound differences with China, India will not acquiesce to Chinese Yuan playing a big role in global trade, not to talk of Yuan becoming a reserve currency. As BRICS become bigger – likely Bangladesh and Indonesia will next come on board – the challenge will be to frame a programme, based on consensus and not by way of economic and political power of any constituent that will allow global south to work in harmony with the West. Now there is a challenge for the world’s most adroit scrabble player to write an appropriate acronym for the expanded BRICS.

BRICS Expansion, Geopolitics And India

By Dr. Krishnendra Meena 31st August 2023

BRICS concluded its 15^th Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa last week. India is a key partner in the original BRICS and has been participant in the key highlight of the summit, the announcement of expansion of the group from January 1, 2024. The newly inducted members are as disparate as the original group. They comprise the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the Republic of Iran from West Asia, two Nile riparian countries of Egypt and Ethiopia from Africa and Argentina from South America.

If the inclusion of major oil producers from West Asia provides political heft and clout to the group, Egypt and Ethiopia represent African aspirations of representation in the global fora. Argentina, being an economic and financial struggler may be looking for revival through loans with less stringent conditions from BRICS’ New Development Bank.

The location of the BRICS countries and the new members is interesting, in terms of geopolitical reach. Egypt and Saudi Arabia also have been major beneficiaries of their strong linkages with the United States of America during Cold War and after. They facilitated US in West Asia and the Arab World. Now, it seems the tables have turned, perhaps, with the onset of a new Cold War. The second pole, however, this time comprises the formidable Russia-China alliance. Does BRICS expansion signal the return of the proverbial Chessboard vis-à-vis NATO? Or the BRICS is just an economic power bloc enhancing its energy prospects and geographical extent? What are the implications for India of the expanded membership? The article seeks to answer these questions.

BRICS’s fundamental aims since its conception have concentrated upon creating a new financial architecture in the international system. Gradually, however, it is acquiring a political character and has been concerned specifically with security issues in the international system. This is reflected in consecutive Summit Statements of recent years and political and security cooperation forms the most important pillar of collaboration in BRICS.

Owing to Russia-Ukraine war, this year’s summit acquires tremendous significance as none of the BRICS members have been openly critical of Russian actions. Russia intends to overcome the sanctions imposed by the United States and the West and thereby supports the expansion of BRICS. China benefits in its effort to shape a new international order wherein Beijing holds the leadership. With its economic strength and increasing military numbers, it is well placed to work on alternative financial and economic mechanisms which may be acceptable to many countries, visible in the interest in the membership of the BRICS.

ALSO READ: Does India Have A Meaningful Future in BRICS?

Regionally, inclusion of Saudi Arabia, UAE and Iran shows that the West Asian ‘Arc of Instability’ now has a range of actors and a different set of stakeholders. Saudi Arabia being the largest exporter of oil and China, the largest importer, the partnership will grow and will have implications for the international energy scenario. Traditionally, the US has been a trusted partner of the Saudis and such change may be considered a blow to US interests in West Asia.

Furthermore, Iran with it’s expanding nuclear programme and resulting sanctions have been at loggerheads with the US and the West. An important regional arena through which the US established its military and geopolitical credentials now seems to be sliding out of its grip. US withdrawal from Afghanistan two years ago perhaps was the commencement of this process. The process may be hastened with BRICS membership for Saudi Arabia and Iran, whereas the major beneficiary is China with its ambitions of global geopolitical dominance. Moreover, China, is the leading trading partner of most countries in the region and beyond in Central Asia and South Asia.

For India, inclusion of six new members into the BRICS has several implications. Initially, during the Johannesburg summit, Brazil and India were skeptical of expansion and were keen on the modalities and criteria for inclusion of new members. The inclusion, however, reflects rising Chinese influence in the international system as BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization are primarily led by Beijing. The membership of both comprises of major regional actors in their respective regions and they cover Eurasian landmass in the case of SCO and BRICS has membership from all the continents except for North America.

China and India have major differences on a range of issues, the foremost being the contentious Line of Actual Control where they blame each other for massive deployment of troops in the Himalayas since 2020. Therefore, rising Chinese influence in any sphere is inherently not a favourable situation for India.

India, on the other hand, in the recent past has drifted towards the US, the other pole of the emerging Cold War. For New Delhi to feature in two major organizations led by China and at this critical juncture in the international scenario may be a balancing act, but it will have long term ramifications.

It may be argued that India with the current dispensation asserts its strategic and national interests but agreeing to a Chinese agenda may not create that impression. Also, the illusion that BRICS and SCO are representatives of the Global South and thereby India agrees to be a part of them, now comes under scrutiny. With the membership of Iran and Saudi Arabia, BRICS is now a geopolitical group aimed at the US and the West. India must find it hard to negotiate with the two antithetical arrays in global geopolitics.

G20: Ukraine Conflict Is Affecting The Global South, Says Jaishankar

By LokMarg 2nd March 2023

Noting that there were divergences on issues concerning the Ukraine conflict in the G20 document, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday said that the chair summary outlined the concerns of the Global South and “it is just on two paragraphs that were not able to get everybody on the same page.”

“The bulk of the issues which concern especially the Global South, the developing countries. There was a considerable meeting of minds
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And a considerable meeting of mindshas been captured by the outcome document. If we had a perfect meeting of minds of all issues and captured it fully then obviously it would have been a collective statement,” he said while confirming that a chair’s summary and outcome document was adopted.
Emphasizing the issue of bringing G20 members on the same page, Jaishankar said, “In terms of the outcome document, the bulk… 95 per cent for say in terms of paragraph agreement and it is just on two paragraphs that were not able to get everybody on the same page or same para.”

Highlighting that there were “issues concerning the Ukraine conflict on which there were divergences” EAM said, “The bulk of issues, we were able to get an outcome document. There was a chair summary because there were differences on the Ukraine issue which could not reconcile various parties who held differing positions.”

Jaishankar noted that the impact of the conflict on food security and the cost of fertilizer were among the key areas for the Indian presidency.

“Is a conflict impacting Global South? Of course, it is. It is not something new. In fact, India has been saying this very strongly for pretty much close to a year that this is affecting… In fact today, in my own session, I actually used the word saying for much of the Global South this is a make-or-break issue that the cost of fuel, the cost of food, the cost of fertilizer…The availability of fertilizer which means next year’s food. These are all extremely pressing issues,” he said while

Pointing to the fact that some countries are struggling with debt post-pandemic, EAM said, “If you see, some of the countries who were already struggling with debt, who were already impacted by the pandemic. For them, the knock-on effects of this conflict coming on top of that. It is a matter of very very deep concern for us. Which is why we kept on the focus in this meeting very much on the concerns of the Global South. We feel these are the most vulnerable countries. It is not credible to talk about the future of the global economy and the multilateral order. If we are not able to really address and focus on the issues of those who are most in need. So that is been broadly the approach.,”

Multilateralism is in crisis today in terms of preventing future wars and terrorism,” said Jaishankar, while briefing reports about the discussions that took place during the meetings.

“The G20 meetings discussed the challenges of Russia and Ukraine issues and PM Modi advised us to realise ‘what unites us and what divides us … These meetings have been affected by geopolitical tensions. PM Modi urged that we had a responsibility for those who were not in the room,” said the EAM.

“There were five important points in the Prime Minister’s address. One, he noted that multilateralism is in crisis today. And, in terms of preventing future wars and fostering international cooperation which were two primary tasks it had failed. The second point he made was that it is important to give a voice to the Global South because world was sinking … a lot of countries actually regressing on their sustainable goals pathway were witnessing challenging debts,” he added.

Referring to PM Modi’s address, he said, “The third point he made was that the discussions which we were beginning at that time. He recognised that these discussions were affected by the geopolitical tensions of the day. But asked us all as foreign ministers to remember that we had a responsibility for those who are not in the room. And therefore, he urged that we draw inspiration from India’s civilisation ethos and focus not on what divides us but on what unites us.”

He reiterated PM Modi’s concerns about the challenges that the participating countries should address which included the impact of the pandemic, the lives lost in natural disasters, the breakdown of global supply chains, debt and financial crisis.

He said that G20 group have individually and collectively an obligation to contribute to international growth and prosperity, adding that these can be implemented through sustainable partnerships and goodwill initiatives.

“On its part, India has undertaken development projects in 78 countries and has actively encouraged exchanges and capability building. During the Covid pandemic, we made a conscious effort at contributing to global solutions even while looking after our own. Today’s situation demands that we continue to live up to our international responsibilities. The G20 must be sensitive to all our partners’ priorities and economic concerns, especially those more vulnerable. We must ensure demand-driven and sustainable development cooperation based on country ownership and transparency. Respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity are essential guiding principles for such cooperation,” added Jaishankar.(ANI)