India’s presidency strives to bridge divides, break barriers, and sow seeds of collaboration in a world where unity prevails over discord, wrote PM Modi.
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam — these two words capture a deep philosophy. It means the world is one family. This is an all-embracing outlook that encourages us to progress as one universal family, transcending borders, languages, and ideologies. During India’s G20 presidency, this translated into a call for human-centric progress. As One Earth, we came together to nurture our planet. As One Family, we support each other in the pursuit of growth. And we move together towards a shared future — One Future — which is an undeniable truth in these interconnected times.
The post-pandemic world order is very different from the one before it. There are three important changes, among others. First, there is a growing realisation that a shift away from a GDP-centric view of the world to a human-centric view is needed. Second, the world is recognising the importance of resilience and reliability in global supply chains. Third, there is a collective call for boosting multilateralism through the reform of global institutions. Our G20 presidency has played the role of a catalyst in these shifts.
In December 2022, when we took over the presidency from Indonesia, I wrote that a mindset shift must be catalysed by the G20. This was especially needed in the context of mainstreaming the marginalised aspirations of developing countries, the Global South and Africa.
The Voice of Global South Summit, which witnessed participation from 125 countries, was one of the foremost initiatives under our presidency. It was an important exercise to gather inputs and ideas from the Global South.
Further, our presidency has not only seen the largest ever participation from African countries but also pushed for the inclusion of the African Union as a permanent member of the G20.
An interconnected world means our challenges across domains are interlinked. This is the midway year of the 2030 Agenda, and many are noting with great concern that the progress on the sustainable development goals (SDGs) is off-track. The G20 2023 Action Plan on Accelerating Progress on SDGs will spearhead the future direction of the G20 towards implementing SDGs.