Reform of international financial, political structures including UNSC needed urgently: EAM Jaishankar

India called on Wednesday for urgent reforms of the international decision-making structures, especially the Security Council, to give the Global South its due representation.

Speaking at the Foreign Ministers' meeting of the G20, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said reforming the UN to ensure it was representative, credible, and effective was imperative and urgent.

The reforms should include expansion of both permanent and elected seats on the Security Council, EAM Jaishankar said.

The ministers of the G20, the group of major developed and emerging countries, met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly's high-level meeting.

In a speech that dealt at length with the international financial and development organisations, S. Jaishankar said that it was imperative to bring in reforms to make the international financial architecture more "robust, expansive, and effective".

In this context, he mentioned India's efforts when it was the chair of the G20 to reform multilateral development banks (MDBs) to meet the aspirations of the developing world.

During its presidency of the G20, India set up a panel of international economic experts to recommend reforms to the MDBs and their suggestions were adopted by the G20.

The panel's recommendations included raising more capital, tripling by 2030 lending for sustainable development, streamlining procedures, and encouraging more risk-taking in funding programmes.

S. Jaishankar took aim at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), calling for its comprehensive reform to ensure a rules-based, non-discriminatory and fair multilateral trading system.

He also had a brief conversation with WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala before the meeting.

He said that protectionism and market-distorting practices of the international trading system worked against developing countries.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the G20 countries should be strongly engaged in reforming the UN and making "the Security Council truly representative by addressing the under-representation of Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean".

The External Affairs Minister stressed the role of the G20 in promoting reforms in all areas of the international structures.

The G20, the UN and the so-called Bretton Woods institutions – which include the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank – are trying to deal with "some of the most important challenges of our time: inequality, financing for development, the climate crisis, the impact of new technologies", he said.

"In all these areas, progress is slipping out of reach as our world becomes more unsustainable, unequal, and unpredictable," S. Jaishankar said.

"I look to all G20 countries to push for deep reforms so that global financial institutions reflect today's world and respond to today's challenges," he said.

The External Affairs Minister further said: "We need ambitious reforms of the international financial architecture to make it fully representative of today's global economy, so it can provide strong support to implement the Sustainable Development Goals."

On fighting climate change, S. Jaishankar noted that clean energy investments have increased in India and China, but hardly in other emerging and developing economies since 2015.

"The energy transition must be based on justice and equity, so that all countries benefit," S. Jaishankar said.