Raisina Dialogue 2023: MoS Meenakashi Lekhi pitches for ‘reforming multilateralism’

Minister of State for External Affairs, Meenakashi Lekhi on Saturday highlighted the importance of multilateralism in the context of changing geopolitics at the ongoing 8th Raisina Dialogue.
Lekhi said, “India would work towards reforming multilateralism. There is a better methodology in resolving conflicts and not letting them happen in the first place in the interest of maintaining social order.”
She added, “India has taken upon itself the task of being the voice for the voiceless, and the reform in multilateralism has to be the way forward because in its current form, it has failed to address key issues,” she said, adding that the prevailing global scenario calls for a relook at the method and the manner in which things have happened or have not been dealt with.
She said that while India is a “country of the (global) North”, it was “very much a country of the (global) South.
“India is a country of the East and, by its democratic principles, a country of the West,” she added.
She added, “Thus India is both physically, metaphorically and symbolically, rightly placed to act as a bridge between all uncertainties. India has existed not because there were less challenges but in spite of the challenges. We learnt that there is a continuity of uncertainty, of war, of conflict and there was never a time which was of ultimate peace. So, there is a continuity of tempest, and it is by navigating the tempest that one has to find a way forward to achieve our goals and move forward.”
The MoS added that specific conflicts, difficulties, and problems that mankind is faced with today are not new. “Provocation is a part of our existence”, she said, adding, “Indians bring to the table the perspective that the issues and challenges faced are ancient and there’s always a history to them. The history of the conflict is as old as human evolution itself.”
She said whenever and wherever there is a breakdown of law and order and immorality, “every such time, the “righteous conduct are abrogated”, and nature will throw up somebody to correct the system.
She further said that the world has been divided into Global North, and Global South but India’s position has usually been to act as a bridge between the two. Global South is a coinage for developing countries.
“‘Ekatm Mannavvad’ is central to India values. Wheever a conflict breaks out in any part of the globe, it is going to impact an individual at a faraway distance,” said Lekhi. (ANI)