At NAM summit, PM calls for reforms in post-Covid world

Sandeep Dikshit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 4

Prime Minister Narendra Modi today said the Covid epidemic has shown the need for more representative international institutions. “Covid has shown us the limitations. In the post-Covid world, we need a new template of globalisation, based on fairness, equality, and humanity,’’ he said at a videoconference of Non-Aligned Movement’s (NAM) Covid Contact Group, organised by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev.

We need to promote human welfare, and not focus on economic growth alone. India has long championed such initiatives. — Narendra Modi, PM

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“We need to promote human welfare, and not focus on economic growth alone. India has long championed such initiatives,’’ he said while citing the Indian initiatives of International Day of Yoga, the International Solar Alliance and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure which has organised disaster management drills in the region and beyond.

The PM also asked his NAM colleagues to call on the international community and World Health Organisation (WHO) to focus on building health capacities in developing countries.

“We should develop a platform for all NAM countries to pull our experience, best practices, crises management processes, research and resources. In the founding spirit of movement let us aim today to come together and not grow apart,’’ he advised at the conference where about 40 NAM leaders besides heads of UN, WHO, European Union and the African Union spoke.

Pakistan fielded its health minister while presidents of Iran, Cuba, Indonesia, Egypt and Venezuela were among the other prominent speakers.

India, under PM Modi, sent the Vice President to the two previous NAM summits. The last Indian Prime Ministerial representation to a NAM summit was in Tehran eight years ago. However, PM Modi put faith in the ability of NAM to promote global solidarity as it has often been the “world’s moral voice”. To retain this role, NAM must remain inclusive, he added.

While the summit of G-20 and that of the Foreign Ministers of BRICS countries was an exercise in restraint, at the NAM summit, Iran, Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua accused the US of crippling their response to the pandemic by imposing unilateral sanctions.

Iran President Hassan Rouhani described the US slashing its funding to WHO as “untimely, unjustifiable and irresponsible” which has deprived the WHO of much-needed finances. “One couldn’t have expected otherwise from this administration which has time and again withdrawn from international accords and violated its national laws,’’ he observed.