New Delhi, India

At the opening segment of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting on Thursday (March 2) in New Delhi, India highlighted the agenda of discussion, including global challenges related to conflicts, the Covid pandemic, food, fuel and fertiliser security. Amid current geopolitical tensions, India's Foreign Minister S Jaishankar underlined that the G20 grouping "bears an exceptional responsibility". "We first came together amid a global crisis; and now today, actually, we are confronting multiple ones. These include the impact of the Covid pandemic, concerns over fragile supply chains, the knock-on effects of ongoing conflicts, the anxiety of debt crisis and disruption over climate events." His comments came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed foreign ministers who have gathered from various parts of the world and stressed that "multilateralism is in crisis today". 

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Here are five major pitches raised at the opening session by India's Foreign Minister S Jaishankar: 

1) On multiple challenges and global issues, Jaishankar said, nations "may not always be in one mind". "There are some matters of sharp differences of opinion. We must find common directions because that is what the world expects of us. As we look ahead, there are both pressing and systematic challenges that we all confront," he urged. His comments come at a time when Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is in Delhi amid differences with the United States over the Ukraine war. 

2) The future of multilateralism, Jaishankar said, "depends very much on our ability in a changing world". "Food and energy securities are immediate anxieties magnified by recent events. Now, they do have long-term solutions and repercussions and development cooperation is part of a larger solution that we are deliberating on today," he emphasised. 

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3) With the current global architecture in its eighth decade, the number of members of the United Nations has quadrupled in this period, the Indian foreign minister said.  "It neither reflects today's politics, economics, demographics or aspirations. Since 2005, we have heard sentiments for reforms being expressed at the highest level. But as we all know, these have not materialised. The reasons are no secret. The longer we put it off, the more the credibility of multilateralism stands eroded. Global decision-making has to be democratised if it has to have a future," he insisted. 

Watch| G20 Meet: ‘This grouping bears exceptional responsibility,’ says EAM Jaishankar

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4) Issues related to food, fuel and fertiliser security are "truly make-or-break issues for developing countries", Jaishankar said at the session. "Such issues should not be relegated to the periphery of the international discourse. They are, in fact, crucial to the global economy and must be treated like that. All of us have an obligation to contribute to international growth and prosperity. India has undertaken development projects in 78 countries and has actively encouraged capability building," he said. The G20 must be sensitive to needs of all our partners, especially those more vulnerable, Jaishankar further highlighted, adding that "we must ensure demand-driven and sustainable cooperation based on ownership and transparency". 

5) In a tacit reference to the Ukraine conflict, he also said that the world must strive for more reliable and resilient supply chains. 

"Recent experiences have underlined the risks of depending on limited geographies," he stressed.   

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