India To Host Voice Of Global South Summit On Friday, Debt Challenge And Food Security On Agenda

India sees itself as a leader of the 'Global South', a term used to refer to the developing world, and has helmed initiatives to address the issues faced by member countries, such as developmental challenges, debt issues, climate change, food and energy security etc.?

Since India is also a member of the Group of 20 and has emerged as one of the largest economies, India also serves as a platform to amplify the voices of the developing world at the world stage. Under India's presidency of the G-20, the African Union (AU) was inducted as a Permanent Member of the G-20, which was seen as a major achievement of the Indian presidency and as a sign of Indian leadership of developing countries.

In the virtual summit on Friday, several leaders from a number of countries of Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, West Asia, and Southeast Asia are expected to participate. The virtual summit on Friday is the second edition of the Voice of Global South Summit. The first was held on January 12-13.

"The aim of the initiative was to bring together countries of the Global South and share their perspectives and priorities on a common platform across a whole range of issues. It is learnt that consequences of the ongoing Ukraine conflict, mounting debt, challenges of food and energy security will be among the issues likely to figure at the deliberations," reported PTI.

As the G20 president, India has been focusing on issues like inclusive growth, digital innovation, climate resilience, and equitable global health access with an aim to benefit the Global South or the developing countries, noted PTI, adding that the G20's New Delhi declaration also featured challenges facing the developing world.

After the Voice of South Summit, India will also host a virtual leader-level summit of the G20 on November 22. Earlier, India had announced that it would hold a virtual summit of the G20 leaders once before the conclusion of its presidency. India is also expected to bring up the issues related to the Global South in the summit.

"India is expected to focus on its development agenda including initiatives in areas of digital public infrastructure, climate finance and clean energy in the G20 virtual summit," reported PTI.