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By Vineet Dikshit

The occasion was ripe to make the right kind of moves by India. And that was precisely what Prime Minister Narendra Modi did at the conclusion of first ever Summit of the Global South held albeit virtually.

At the end of two day event participated by 125 countries on Friday the 13th, 2023, India announced a series of initiatives to support the Global South that included a project to provide essential medical supplies to the developing nations in case of natural disasters or humanitarian crisis, and a technology initiative to share India’s expertise in areas like space technology and nuclear energy.

The initiatives includes among others –

  • Aarogya Maitri
    · Global South Centre of Excellence
    · Global South Science and Technology Initiative
    · Global South Young Diplomats Forum
    · Global South Scholarships

Late in the evening the Foreign Secretary (FS) Vinay Mohan Kwatra briefed reports giving details of the large participation from across the globe – 47 countries from Africa, seven from Europe and 29 from Latin America and Caribbean region, 31 from Asia and 11 from Oceania.

The FS added that the summit truly represented “voice” of the Global South with the participants “strongly” and positively responding to the Indian initiative.

In all there were 10 sessions that were held and about 300 odd suggestions made by participants from all four corners of the globe.

This summit had exhibited the need for articulating the voice of the global south. A term ‘global south’ normally refers to the countries which have low levels of economic and industrial development, that are mainly located in the southern part of the world and are located to the south of the industrialized, developed nations.

The Prime Minister had presided over the Inaugural Leaders’ session on 12th of January. This was followed by eight Ministerial-level thematic segments dedicated to addressing the most pressing concerns of the developing world. The Summit wrapped up on Friday the 13th  –  Concluding Leaders’ Session that was also hosted by the prime minister.