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Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that India will take up developmental issues of the Global South at the meetings of the G-20 countries, emphasizing that there should not be any first world or third world, but only one world having a common future.

Sitharaman said India will use the G-20 Presidency to encourage collective solutions to deal with the numerous challenges facing the world, like economic slowdown, rising inflation, threat of resurgence of pandemic and risks emerging from geopolitical conflicts. She said ‘while maintaining close relations with developed countries, India is keen to put forward the point of view of the Global South -- our co-passengers on the path of development for decades.’

The minister said as the world rebuilds itself from the pandemic, the Global South needs to exhibit ‘strong solidarity’ to deal with challenges like pandemic, climate change and geopolitical tensions which are affecting efforts for development and economic growth. She also said that the hardships posed by the pandemic have exposed vulnerabilities at all levels and shown that a major scale up of response mechanisms is required so that the support provided by these institutions is responsive to country-specific needs.