‘Global South’s Rights, Expectations Facing Challenge’: EAM Jaishankar At South Countries’ Meet

Last Updated:September 24, 2025, 15:06 IST

S Jaishankar said the Global South faces challenges from the Covid pandemic and conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine that threaten decades of developed rights and expectations.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar addresses a press conference (Photo: PTI)

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said the Global South is facing challenges of rights and expectations that they had developed meticulously over decades. He added that these challenges have come to being as aftershocks of the Covid-19pandemic, the Gaza and Ukraine crisis, and several other factors.

Speaking at the High-Level Meeting of Like-Minded Global South Countries in New York, the External Affairs Minister said, “We meet in increasingly uncertain times when the state of the world is a cause for mounting concern for member states.”

“The Global South in particular is confronted with a set of challenges which have heightened in the first half of this decade. They include the shocks of the Covid pandemic, two major conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, extreme climate events, volatility in trade, uncertainty in investment flows and interest rates, and the catastrophic slowing down of the SGD agenda,” he said.

“Most of all, the rights and expectations of developing countries in the international system, which has been so assiduously developed over many decades, are today under challenge. In the face of such proliferation of concerns and multiplicity of risks, it is natural that the global south would turn to multilateralism for solutions,” Jaishankar said.

Also highlighting the lack of solutions in the multilateralism arena, the External Affairs Minister said that the international organisations are starved of resources and are rendered ineffective.

“Unfortunately, there too we are presented with a very disappointing prospect. The very concept of multilateralism is under attack. International organisations are being rendered ineffective or starved of resources. The building blocks of the contemporary order are starting to come apart, and the cost of delaying much-needed reforms is today starkly visible,” he said.

Stressing that the Global South now must approach these issues in a united way, which includes transparent economic practices, Jaishankar said, “So as like-minded global south countries, we today approach world affairs united and through a broad set of principles and concepts. And these include fair and transparent economic practices that democratize production and enhance economic security.”

He proposed measures that would enhance economic interactions among the Global South.

“A stable environment for balanced and sustainable inter-economic interactions, including more South trade investment and technology collaborations. Resilient, reliable and shorter supply chains that would reduce dependence on any single supplier or on any single market,” he said.

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Vani Mehrotra

Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

Vani Mehrotra is the Deputy News Editor at News18.com. She has nearly 10 years of experience in both national and international news and has previously worked on multiple desks.

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