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Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal has said that the Global South needs to discuss ways and means for countries to cooperate and act together to make our supply chains open, secure, trusted, stable, and equitable, thereby making them more resilient. At the 2nd Voice of Global South Summit, Union Minister said that the crisis of COVID-19 pandemic, impact of climate change and raging geopolitical tensions have disrupted and underscored the fragility of global supply chains. These disruptions have created monumental challenges of food and energy security, cost of living and achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. 

He further said ‘Prime Minister Narendra Modi has rightly pointed out that most of the global challenges have not been created by the Global South, but they affect us more. Prime Minister has further underscored the need for our collective voice to be heard whenever and wherever the world looks for solutions’. Goyal pointed out that India successfully hosted the G 20 Summit in New Delhi in September, under the theme ‘one earth, one family and one future’ with the support of the Global South. 

He said ‘During its presidency, India made strong interventions in strengthening the voice of the global south including by making the African Union a permanent member of the grouping and by galvanising concrete action oriented, G 20 outcomes for the Global South, adding that the African Union will now be a part of the G 20 permanently. It is necessary to make further efforts to strengthen the voice of the global south and to come together for our and humanity's future.’ 

Meanwhile, this is the second time that India hosted the summit since January this year. The first summit was themed as ‘Energy Security and development: Roadmap to Prosperity’ and brought together 125 countries of the Global South to share their perspectives and priorities on a common platform in the run up to G20 Leaders Summit that was held in September 2023 in New Delhi.