Multilateralism Digest: September 2023 - Issue 9

I. India in the UN

1. EAM addresses 78th UNGA
2. Launch of a new India-UN initiative
3. India suggests renaming of the G77
4. PBC needs better mandate, role
5. Essentials for reform of UNSC working methods

II. India’s G20 Presidency

1. G20 Summit adopts New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration
2. Fourth Sustainable Finance Working Group Meeting held
3. Fourth GPFI meeting held

III. Plurilateral Developments

1. 20th India-ASEAN and 18th East Asia Summits held

IV. Multilateral Institutions

1. 78th UNGA inaugurated with High Level Meetings
2. SDG Summit adopts Declaration
3. World leaders adopt health related declarations
4. Iceland donates to WTO Fisheries Funding Mechanism
5. UNIDO moves to phase-II of GEIPP

V. Peace and Security

1. 22nd meeting of UN-AU JTF on Peace and Security
2. UNOCT and ECOWAS sign MoU

I. India in the UN

EAM addresses UNGA

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar addressed the 78th UN General Assembly on 26 September 2023. He said that from the era of non-alignment, India has now evolved to that of Vishwa Mitra (a friend to the world). India has built development partnerships with 78 nations across geographies. He said that is important that rule makers do not subjugate rule takers because rules will work only when they apply equally to all.Click here to read… [2]

Launch of a new India-UN initiative

India and the United Nations launched a joint capacity-building initiative for the Global South today. The “India-UN Capacity Building Initiative” aims to share India’s development experiences, best practices and expertise with partner countries in the Global South through capacity building and training programs. As part of this initiative, the UN India team and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will partner to leverage India’s Technical and Economic Cooperation platform to share India’s development experiences and best practices across the world.Click here to read… [3]

India suggests renaming of the G77

Speaking at the G77 Summit on the theme “Current Development Challenges: The Role of Science, Technology and Innovation” held under the Cuban Presidency on 15-16 September 2023, India highlighted the relevance of the grouping in the contemporary times, emphasized that decisions should be arrived at by consensus and that the name of the grouping which consists of a large number of countries be changed to something suitable.Click here to read… [4]

PBC needs better mandate, role

At the Ministerial Meeting of the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC) on 22 September 2023, the Indian representative pointed to the lack of a direct conflict prevention mandate with the PBC. He emphasised the need for the Security Council to consult the PBC where there is overlap between peacekeeping and peacebuilding. Speaking about India’s contribution to peacebuilding he highlighted that the cumulative value of India's developmental projects with the Global South now exceed US$ 40 billion.Click here to read… [5]

Essentials for reform of UNSC working methods

At the UNSC open debate on the working methods of the Security Council on 5 September 2023, India’s PR Ruchira Kamboj pointed out issues regarding selection of chairs of subsidiary bodies and distribution of penholderships, working methods of the UNSC Sanctions Committees, obsoleteness and irrelevance of some of its agenda items.Click here to read… [6]

II. India’s G20 Presidency

G20 Summit adopts New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration

The G20 Summit was held in New Delhi on 9-10 September 2023. The highlight of the Summit was the adoption of the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration. The 83 paragraph declaration was adopted by consensus and contained several actionable initiatives towards the realization of the theme of India’s G20 Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – One Earth, One Family, One Future.Click here to read… [7]

Fourth Sustainable Finance Working Group Meeting held

The fourth Meeting of the Sustainable Finance Working Group (SFWG) was held from 13-14 September 2023 in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. During India’s G20 presidency, the working group has made recommendations on the following six areas : (1) Mechanisms for Mobilisation of Timely and Adequate Resources for Climate Finance; (2) Policy Measures and Financial Instruments for Catalysing the Rapid Development and Deployment of Green and Low-Carbon Technologies; (3) Scaling-up the adoption of social impact investment instruments; (4) Improving Nature-related Data and Reporting; (5) G20 Technical Assistance Action Plan; (6) Overcoming data-related barriers to climate investments.Click here to read… [8]

Fourth GPFI meeting held

The Fourth G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) Meeting which was held in Mumbai, Maharashtra from 14-16 September 2023. The three day meeting saw G20 GPFI delegates engaging over thought provoking discussions on energizing growth for MSMEs, empowering consumers through digital financial literacy and consumer protection as well as key priority areas of GPFI, namely, digital financial inclusion and SME Finance.Click here to read… [9]

III. Plurilateral Developments

20th India-ASEAN and 18th East Asia Summits held

Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the 20th India-ASEAN Summit and the 18th East Asia Summit in Jakarta on 7 September 2023. At the ASEAN-India Summit, Prime Minister held extensive discussions with ASEAN partners on further strengthening of ASEAN-India Comprehensive Strategic Partnership and charting its future course. At the 18th East Asia Summit, Prime reiterated the importance of EAS mechanism and reaffirmed our support to further strengthening it. Prime Minister underlined India’s support for ASEAN centrality and called for ensuring a free, open and rules based Indo-Pacific.Click here to read… [10]

IV. Multilateral Institutions

78th UNGA inaugurated with High Level Meetings

The 78th session of the UNGA commenced with high-level meetings being held from 19-26 September. Addressing the assembly Secretary-General António Guterres said that “(A) multipolar world needs strong and effective multilateral institutions. Yet global governance is stuck in time...Our world needs statesmanship, not gamesmanship and gridlock.” 136 Heads of State and Government, as well as 40 ministers, of whom 20 were women, participated in the general debate.Click here to read… [11]

SDG Summit adopts Declaration

At the half-way point to SDG deadline in 2030, world leaders at the SDG Summit 2023 on 18 September 2023 adopted a sweeping 10-page Political Declaration to reaffirm their shared commitment to end poverty and hunger everywhere, combat inequalities within and among countries and build peaceful societies that leave no one behind. Welcoming the endorsement by the Political Declaration of the need to reform today’s outdated, dysfunctional and unfair international financial architecture, Secretary-General António Guterres stressed that “this can be a game-changer in accelerating SDG progress”.Click here to read… [12]

World leaders adopt health related declarations

World leaders at the United Nations General Assembly held 3 High-Level Meeting on pandemic PPR, universal health coverage and fighting tuberculosis from 20-22 September 2023. The high-level meeting on the fight against tuberculosis (TB) approved a political declaration reaffirming their collective commitment to end TB by 2030. Recommitting to universal health coverage, Member States today endorsed a political declaration proclaiming that every human being has the right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. In the first ever high-level debate on the pandemic, the Assembly committed to work to make access to pandemic-related products — such as vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics — timely, sustainable and equitable, while calling on the World Health Organization (WHO) to coordinate this with relevant partners.Click here to read… [13]

Iceland donates to WTO Fisheries Funding Mechanism

The government of Iceland has offered to contribute CHF 500,000 to the WTO Fisheries Funding Mechanism to assist developing members and least-developed country members in implementing the Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.Click here to read… [14]

UNIDO moves to phase-II of GEIPP

The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) have embarked on a new chapter of collaboration with agreement on a second phase of the Global Eco-Industrial Parks Programme (GEIPP). The GEIPP helps emerging economies to create more competitive and sustainable industrial parks by adopting circular economy practices and advancing climate change mitigation strategies. It will be supported by a CHF17.7m contribution from SECO.Click here to read… [15]

V. Peace and Security

22nd meeting of UN-AU JTF on Peace and Security

The United Nations-African Union Joint Task Force on Peace and Security held its twenty second consultative meeting on 18 September 2023 in New York. The meeting reviewed the status of the partnership between the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) with an update on the implementation of the Joint UN-AU Framework for Enhanced Partnership in Peace and Security. In this context, the meeting discussed peace and security developments in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Somalia, the Sudan and Central African Republic and Gabon, as well as discussions on unconstitutional changes of Governments in the Sahel region.Click here to read… [16]

UNOCT and ECOWAS sign MoU

The United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 22 September 2023 strengthen their partnership in preventing and countering terrorism and violent extremism. The MoU establishes a framework for cooperation between both entities over the next five years on a range of security and counter-terrorism initiatives, including in the implementation of the ECOWAS 2020-2024 Action Plan on Eradicating Terrorism.Click here to read… [17]