External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday said India's G20 presidency succeeded in getting the focus of the grouping back on the issues faced by the global south without diminishing the seriousness of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its consequences.
Addressing a press conference after the G20 Development Ministers' Meeting here, Mr Jaishankar said the 'G20 Action Plan on Accelerating Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)' and 'G20 High Level Principles on Lifestyles for Sustainable Development' were unanimously approved at the meeting.
“Right now our focus is how do you address the pressing needs of the developing countries, the small island developing states, the least developed countries, those who are really teetering on the edge of an abyss,” Mr Jaishankar told reporters.
The minister said last year, it was understandable that the focus of the G20 was more on immediate issues pertaining to the conflict, but a narrative took root over time that the conflict and its repercussions should not obfuscate the real concerns and pain points of the global south.
He said there were countries who cannot afford food, running short of fuel and India's neighbours were among those who have suffered a lot in the last year.
“We are in no way diminishing the seriousness of the conflict and its consequences. But the conflict was dealt with through an agreed understanding at Bali. That was an understanding of the leaders,” S Jaishankar said.
He said the meeting on Monday got the G20 to look at sustainable development growth and look at what was happening with the global south, think about financing for them, think of climate financing, look at the link between development and financing, look at women's issues, education, digital.
“These are the real issues of the world. In that sense yes, I think we got the spotlight on these issues,” Mr Jaishankar said.
An outcome document of the meeting said the development ministers agreed to the 14-points, barring the reference to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Russia dissociated itself from the status of the document as a common outcome because of references to para 10 and 11, which referred to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
China stated that the meeting outcome should not include any reference to the Ukraine crisis, the chair's summary of the proceedings stated.
Asked to comment on the Russian delegation's remarks at the meeting, Mr Jaishankar said "every delegation spoke for its interest and its outlook".
"Some countries may be closer to others, but I would not get into this 'who supported whom and who did not support'. I don't think that is helpful. I think the fairest description is 'everybody spoke for themselves'," the minister said.
"And my job as chair was to find the common elements and put it together and that is the document that is there before you," Mr Jaishankar said.
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