AKIPRESS.COM - Inaugurating G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting, Modi said post-World War II global governance has “failed”, Press Trust of India reported.

The international order created after the end of the World War II has failed to deliver its goals and the crushing impact of this failure is being felt mostly by the developing world, Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi said on Thursday while delivering the inaugural speech at the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting in New Delhi through a video feed. The Prime Minister urged the delegates to “rise above differences” to address the challenges confronting the world.

PM Modi also invoked Mahatma Gandhi and Buddha to urge the delegates to draw inspiration from India's civilisational ethos and “focus not on what divides us, but on what unites us.”

The G20, which includes the world's 19 wealthiest nations plus the European Union, accounts for 85% of global economic output and two-thirds of its population. Foreign ministers, including Lavrov (Russia), Blinken (US) and China’s Qin Gang, are in Delhi for the summit.

The foreign ministers from the world's largest industrialised and developing nations held crucial deliberations on key global challenges that took place in the backdrop of an increasingly bitter rift between the US-led West and the Russia-China combine over the Ukraine conflict.

“The architecture of global governance created after the World War II was to serve two functions. First, to prevent future wars by balancing competing interests; second to foster international cooperation on issues of common interests. The experience of the last few years – financial crisis, climate change, pandemic, terrorism, and wars clearly shows that global governance has failed in both its mandates,” said Modi. He urged the G20 to build consensus and resolve differences saying, “We should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can.”

During his speech, Modi highlighted the developmental goals of the developing countries and said the “food and energy security” are among the most important issues before the Global South and added, “No group can claim global leadership without listening to those most affected by its decisions.”

The Indian PM highlighted the debt problem facing the least developed countries and reminded the grouping of its responsibility in dealing with “growth, development, economic resilience, disaster resilience, financial stability, transnational crime, corruption, terrorism, and food and energy security.”

The Prime Minister of India urged for consensus among the attending countries and said, “I am sure that today’s meeting will be ambitious, inclusive, action-oriented, and will rise above differences.”

"It was a rare address by Modi in English - a sign of how seriously he wanted his message to be taken. He made no direct reference to the war in Ukraine but acknowledged that discussions would be affected by geopolitical tensions. India's slogan for the G20 is "One Earth, One Family, One Future".

The Foreign Ministers Meeting, second in the list of ministerial meetings under the Indian Presidency of this year’s G20 summit, was presided by India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar who began the proceeding by observing a minute’s silence in memory of the victims of the February 6 earthquake in Turkey and Syria.

In his remarks, Dr. Jaishankar highlighted the economic difficulties created by the COVID-19 pandemic, disrupted supply chains, and the “knock-on affects of ongoing conflicts, anxiety of debt crises and the disruption of climate events.”

He urged the G20 member countries to strengthen multilateralism and strengthen it deal with the “changing world”. Jaishankar mentioned the need to reform the United Nations which has remained unchanged since 1945.

Dr. Jaishankar said, G20 member countries “must be sensitive to the priorities and economic concerns of all our partners, especially those most vulnerable.”

Last week, G20 finance ministers failed to reach a consensus on a closing statement at their meeting in the city of Bengaluru. It was left to India to release a chair's summary which noted "different assessments of the situation" in Ukraine within the group.

While India has not condemned Russia over Ukraine conflict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Putin last year that this was "not a time for war" in comments seen as a rebuke to Moscow. Modi said Thursday that he was confident the meeting would "rise above differences" between its attendees.