New Delhi’s developmental projects with low and middle-income nations of the Global South are now worth more than $40 billion, India’s permanent representative to the United Nations (UN) Ruchira Kamboj has stated.
Delivering the country statement at the UN General Assembly debate on ‘Peacebuilding and Sustaining Peace’, Kamboj underlined that India’s developmental assistance comprised “soft loans, grants, and capacity-building training programs, most of which have been undertaken in the last decade”.
The Indian diplomat said that New Delhi had always sought to play a constructive and substantial role through its extensive developmental partnerships with the Global South.
She said that the India-UN Development Fund, set up in 2017, was a mark of New Delhi’s "unwavering commitment to multilateralism and global welfare".
“In just five years, the India-UN Development Partnership Fund has supported 75 development projects in partnership with 56 developing countries, including 17 in Africa. These projects focus on South-owned, South-led, and demand-driven sustainable development initiatives,” she said.
Kamboj added that New Delhi had also “proactively worked” to address the global food and commodity challenges caused by the spillover effects of the Ukraine conflict.
During the debate, Kamboj also highlighted that India’s commitment to global peace-keeping was evidenced from the fact that over 6,000 Indian soldiers remained deployed in 10 peace-keeping missions across the world. She noted that 177 Indian soldiers have lost their lives serving in UN missions till date.
India Reiterates Call for UN Reforms
Citing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kamboj said that a reformed global multilateral system, including the expansion of the permanent membership base of the UN Security Council, would only improve its “effectiveness and relevance”.
India has been a steadfast advocate of UN reforms, including the induction of developing economies from the Global South, as permanent members of the Security Council.
New Delhi says that the current global multilateral governance and financial architecture, which traces its roots to the post-World War II period, no longer reflects the “contemporary global realities”.
The Indian leadership has also warned that not heeding calls from developing countries to reform the global governance architecture would render the UN and other institutions as “irrelevant”.