India to host a 'special' virtual summit for Global South nations next week, 120 nations invited
New Delhi: In a 'new and unique initiative', the Indian government to host a special virtual summit of the Global South countries this month, focusing on 'unity of voice, unity of purpose'. The foreign secretary of the country Vinay Kwatra confirmed on Friday to media persons here.
Kwatra said that summit essentially envisages bringing together the countries of Global South and sharing their perspective and priorities on a common platform on a range of issues- especially the recent developments that seriously impacted the developing world across many domains.
During the two-day summit on January 12 and 13, the countries will share common concerns and perspectives relating to various challenges- the global pandemic that has had a serious impact on countries across the world. The impact of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine- increasing difficulties of access and affordability of food, fertiliser, and fuel. Challenges of food and energy security. Third, climate change, in particular issues relating to climate finance and climate technology. Lastly, fourth, increasing burdens on developing countries in the areas like- mounting debts, and inflationary pressures- are the big tools to the structural parameters of their economies, the foreign secretary informed.
More than 120 countries are being invited to this summit, he confirmed further. "Often, however, these concerns of the developing countries, do not get due attention on the global stage. Also, the relevant existing platforms have proven to be inadequate in addressing these challenges and concerns of the developing countries," Kwatra added.
Adding further, the senior official mentioned, "India has always been at the forefront and consistently championed the cause of the developing world, we have been strongly articulating the interest and concerns of our partners of the Global South- in all international forums and mechanisms."
The government emphasised that consultative and outcome-oriented conversation- focused on the most pressing concerns, interests, and priorities of the4 developing countries, is the need of the hour. Further, India's G20 presidency provides the opportunity for the country to channelise the inputs or outcomes of such discussions to take on larger global forums.
The summit envisages 10 sessions over a period of two days. Two of the sessions are planned to be held at the level of the head of the state or the head of the government. Rest eight sessions will be held at the ministerial level. Each session would have a set of / group of 10-20 countries, participating in each of these sessions.
Leaders' session will be hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Other sessions would be led by various ministers, with the participation of their counterparts. Innagural Leaders Session will be on the morning of Jan 12 and the theme of discussion will be 'the voice of Global South- for human-centric developments'. Then the finance ministers' session would be on 'financing people-centric developments. "Key elements of the developments have to focus on centricity of people," India's foreign secretary added.
The environment ministers' session would focus on 'balancing growth with environment-friendly lifestyles'. The first foreign ministers' session would be on the theme of 'priorities of Global South, ensuring the conducive environment'.
Whereas on the second day of the summit, five ministerial sessions would take place- three parral sessions would be in the first half of the concluding day. Energy ministers' session, focusing on 'energy security and roadmap for development and prosperity, health ministers' session would focus on Covid- 19 pandemic and how the countries are doing to deal with the situation and 'cooperate to build resilient healthcare system'. The education ministers' session would focus on human-centric development and capacity building among the countries of the Global South.
In the second half of the concluding day, two sessions will take place- one of the commerce and trade ministers' sessions would be focusing on the theme 'Developing synergies in Global South, Trade, Technology, Tourism and Resources'.
Interestingly, the Indian government informed that the last and second foreign ministers session will be held on the concluding session, and would be 'G20 suggestions for India's presidency'. Kwatra emphasised that this particular session aims to take suggestions from the non-G20 countries on various important issues, which will be raked up or discussed during the G20 summit.
The Global South is made up of Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, Pacific Islands, and Asia, excluding Israel, Japan, and South Korea. It is generally seen as an abode to Brazil, India, Indonesia and China, which, along with Nigeria and Mexico, are the largest Southern states in terms of land area and population. The overwhelming majority of the Global South countries are located in or near the tropics.
Importantly, the major of the Global South countries are major oil exporters, like- Iraq, Nigeria, Kuwait, Kazakhstan etc. Hence, it is considered that this summit would give India a platform to explore more opportunities in the energy sector as the country is a major importer of crude oil.
Iraq was the world's second-largest exporter of oil as recently as 2016 but sits in fifth place in 2020, with $45.2 billion in revenue and exporting 7.06 per cent of all oil exports that year. It is the second-largest producer in OPEC after Saudi Arabia. Iraq has the fifth-largest oil reserves in the world, but according to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, the majority of those reserves are already tapped or being developed. Iraq also faces the challenge of being over-reliant on oil revenues, which accounted for an estimated 91 per cent of government revenues in 2018.
Nigeria was the world's seventh-largest exporter of oil in 2020. The country exported $30 billion worth of oil, about 4.68% of the global total. The country relishes a relatively diverse crowd of clients who import its oil. Whereas, Kuwait is on the list of the world's top oil exporters. The country accounted for 4.32 per cent of global oil exports in 2020, shipping $27.6 billion worth of oil that year. Kuwait produced about 2.75 million barrels of oil per day in 2020, making it the world's tenth-largest producer. The country's reserves are the sixth-largest in the world.
Meanwhile, experts say that the energy transition and the Global South are beyond the fate of producer economies and the developmental state. Developing countries will be central, as 70 per cent of the future energy demand is expected to come from non-OECD countries in 2040, due to rapidly growing populations and economies. Among these, many developing countries in sub-Saharan Africa, South East Asia or Latin America are confronted with the imperative to foster economic development but at the same time lack the domestic capacity to ensure this is done in a sustainable way.
