External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar addressed important aspects of global governance reform in the second G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Wednesday, which took place on the margins the 79th United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The meeting, chaired by Brazilian President Lula da Silva, was attended by several leaders, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, General Assembly President Philemon Yang, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
Jaishankar emphasized India’s perspectives on three pivotal areas for reform: the United Nations and its subsidiary bodies, the International Financial Architecture, and the Multilateral Trading System. He pointed out that significant progress was achieved during India’s G20 Presidency, where leaders advocated for enhancing development and climate finance. They also urged multilateral evelopment banks (MDBs) to refine their vision, operational strategies, and financial capacities to maximize developmental impact. The frist reform was also
Jaishankar described the UN as “a prisoner of the past,” stressing the need for its evolution to reflect the contemporary global landscape. “The world has transformed into a smart, interconnected, and multipolar arena, with member states increasing fourfold since the UN’s inception. However, the UN has struggled to keep pace, particularly within the Security Council, which faces challenges in fulfilling its mandate to maintain international peace and stability, thereby undermining its effectiveness and credibility,” he said.
According to a statement from the Ministry of External Affairs, the Brazilian Presidency’s 2024 G20 Roadmap aims to create better, larger, and more effective MDBs, building on the New Delhi mandate and the recommendations from the 2023 G20 Independent Expert Group on Strengthening MDBs.
The foreign ministers endorsed a “Call to Action on Global Governance Reform” in the meeting, reinforcing the urgency for UN reforms to ensure representative, credible, and effective multilateralism.