Reformed multilateralism needed to face headwinds of

Favouring "reformed multilateralism" to face the headwinds of protectionist tendencies in the world, Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday said reforms should be brought in in international political and financial institutions to make them more representative of ground realities.

"What we need is reformed multilateralism to face the headwinds of protectionist tendencies.

We need to bring about the much-needed reforms in international political, financial, and business institutions so that they are more representative of the ground realities and adopt to respond to new challenges," he said.

Naidu was speaking after inaugurating 'Deccan Dialogue'- conference on 'economic diplomacy in the age of disruptions' at the Indian School of Business (ISB) here.

He noted that India supportsa rules-based multilateral order to tackle common challenges such as climate change, technology divide, trade disputes, terrorism, connectivity and maritime threats.

"But, when we are faced with the issues of unilateralism and protectionism, we need to be conscious of the fact that it was India and other developing countries which have earlier made a clarion call to reform the multilateral system as it exists so that the developing countries have a greater voice in the global governance.

Consequently, it is not our case to go back to the status quo on multilateralism," he said.

On the need to democratise the United Nations Security Council, Naidu said, "One sixth of the world population lives in India, and India is not a member of the United Nations Security Council."
Observing that older patterns of trade and commerce were in the process of an ongoing paradigm shift, Naidu said, "The rules-based, anti-discriminatory and all-inclusive multilateral trading system centered around the UN, the WTO and the international law, is facing an uncertain future."