00:00Minister Lamola, Excellencies, Colleagues, I join other members in thanking you, Minister,
00:09for convening this meeting and reaffirm India's support for the priorities of the South African
00:16G20 presidency. Colleagues, our focus today is on the correlation between international peace
00:25and global development. In recent times, that is well established as both deteriorated in parallel.
00:35The costs, especially to the global South, in terms of energy, food, and fertilizer security,
00:43were starkly demonstrated by ongoing conflicts, particularly in Ukraine and Gaza. Apart from
00:52jeopardizing supplies and logistics, access and costs themselves became pressure points on nations.
01:01Double standards are clearly in evidence. Excellencies, peace can certainly enable development,
01:09but by threatening development, we cannot facilitate peace. Making energy and other essentials
01:17more uncertain in an economically fragile situation helps no one. Therefore, the way out is to move
01:27the needle towards dialogue and diplomacy, not in the opposite direction, towards further complications.
01:36In any conflict situation, there will be a few who have the ability to engage both sides. Such countries
01:44can be utilized by the international community, both to achieve peace and to maintain it thereafter.
01:52So, even as we attempt to address complex threats to peace, the value of encouraging a buy-in from those
01:59supportive of such goals should be appreciated.
02:04A persistent threat to development is that perennial disruptor of peace, terrorism.
02:11It is imperative that the world display neither tolerance nor accommodation to terrorist activities.
02:20Given the extensive networking among terrorists, those who act against them on any front actually
02:27render a larger service to the international community as a whole.
02:31As we confront conflict, economic pressures, and terrorism, the limitations of multilateralism,
02:39and the United Nations in particular, are visible.
02:43The need for reforming multilateralism has never been greater.
02:48Colleagues, the international situation is today both politically and economically volatile.
02:53We, as members of G20, have a particular responsibility to strengthen its stability and give it a more positive direction
03:03that is best done by undertaking dialogue and diplomacy, by firmly combating terrorism,
03:10and by appreciating the need for stronger energy and economic security.
03:15I thank you.
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