New York [US], September 24 (ANI): External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday (local time) called India's G20 Presidency challenging due to a "very sharp East-West polarization and a very deep North-South divide." In his address at India-UN for Global South: Delivering for Development in New York, Jaishankar began his speech by speaking about India's G20 Presidency and recently held the G20 Summit. He said that India was very determined to ensure that India's G20 Presidency was able to get back to its core agenda.

"Your presence means a lot to us. It also expresses the sentiments that you feel for India and underlines the import of South-South cooperation. We meet just a few weeks after the New Delhi G20 Summit, a summit which took place on the theme of 'One Earth, One Family, One Future," Jaishankar said.

"Now, it was a challenging summit. It was actually a challenging presidency, and it was challenging because we were confronting a very sharp East-West polarization as well as a very deep North-South divide. But we were very determined as the Presidency of the G20 to make sure that this organization on which the world really had put so much hope and was able to get back to its core agenda," he added.

Jaishankar stressed that the core agenda of India's G20 Presidency was global growth and development. He said that India began its G20 Presidency by convening the voice of the Global South Summit.

"And its core agenda was of global growth and development. So it was appropriate that we started our G20 Presidency by convening the voice of the Global South Summit. An exercise which involved 125 nations of the south of which most of you in some capacity participated," Jaishankar said.

Highlighting the problems faced by the Global South, External Affairs Minister said, "Now, during the course of that exercise and the deliberations which took place through the various ministerial tracks and engagement groups, it was very clear to us that the Global South, in addition to bearing the consequences of structural inequities and historical burdens, was plagued by the impact of ... and economic concentration, was suffering from the devastating consequences of the COVID and was ... by conflict, tensions and disputes which have stressed and distorted the international economy." He emphasised that geopolitical calculations and geopolitical contests today are affecting very basic requirements of many nations, including their affordable access to food, fertilizers and energy.

"With each passing day, in fact, it has become clearer to us that today geopolitical calculations and geopolitical contests are impacting very basic requirements of many countries, including their affordable access to food, to fertilizers and to energy," Jaishankar said.

Earlier, EAM S Jaishankar along with United Nations General Assembly President Dennis Francis and foreign ministers of other nations arrived to attend the India-UN for Global South: Delivering for Development. EAM Jaishankar is in New York to lead the Indian delegation for the UNGA session where he will address the United Nations General Assembly on September 26, according to an official statement by the Ministry of External Affairs. After concluding his visit to New York, he will travel to Washington, DC. (ANI)