UNITED NATIONS, Nov 13:
India’s assistance to other nations does not create indebtedness and is without conditionalities, a top Indian diplomat has said, asserting that the country’s cooperation will be guided by the development priorities of its partners.
India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador T S Tirumurti, on Thursday reiterated India’s commitment to work with developing country partners towards a resilient and sustainable recovery from COVID-19.
“In India’s development cooperation, we will be guided by our partners’ development priorities. Our assistance does not create indebtedness and is without conditionalities,” he said at the 44th Annual Meeting of the G-77 Foreign Ministers on Thursday, in a veiled reference to China’s loans which has led to debt-traps in some countries.
In an indirect reference to China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative, Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla early this month warned against a global order that gave in to “skewed” arrangements without due consideration for “reliable, secure and sustainable” supply chains.
During a speech at the Policy Exchange think tank in London, Shringla stressed on India’s commitment to promote and contribute to infrastructure, connectivity, economic projects and supply chains in the region by always prioritising the needs of the host community.
Tirumurti said the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to setback decades of progress made by developing countries and push millions back into poverty.
“As G-77 countries, we cannot let this happen. We need to raise our collective voice for recovery, resilience and reform to ensure that we go back to the path of development,” he said at the forum titled ‘Global response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the obstacles it poses to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and achievement of the SDGs’.
Tirumurti reiterated India’s steadfast commitment to work with its partners from the global South in the G-77 “towards a resilient and sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and to build back better and stronger.”
Giving the statement for External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Tirumurti emphasised that India’s approach will be human-centric, based on principles of mutual respect and national ownership with a commitment to sustainable development for all, in the spirit of ‘world is one family’.
Underscoring the need for affordable health systems and resilient supply chains to fight the pandemic, he said, India is assisting in urgent health and medical supplies to more than 150 countries.
India has pledged 15 million dollars for GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, and operationalised the COVID-19 Emergency Fund for India’s neighbours with an initial contribution of 10 million dollars.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pledged that India, as the largest vaccine producing country, will make its production and delivery capacity available to the entire humanity, Tirumurti said. (PTI)
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