India's G20 presidency was its diplomatic achievement of 2023: Jaishankar

EAM Jaishankar said that through its G20 Presidency, India was able to get the most powerful countries of the world to show a new commitment to sustainable development and promoting green growth

External Affairs Minister (EAM) S Jaishankar on Sunday said India's G20 presidency was its diplomatic achievement of the year.

"The G20 in many ways has been the diplomatic achievement of this year. Not just because we could get everybody to agree but on what we agreed on," the EAM said in his address at the Rotary Institute 2023 event in Bengaluru.

He said that through its G20 Presidency, India was able to get the most powerful countries of the world to show a new commitment to sustainable development and promoting green growth, ensuring international institutions like the World Bank and IMF would lend more prolifically.

He said the G20 is like the World Cup of diplomacy, where the biggest and strongest players come together. The most influential, powerful, and consequential countries of the world were gathered round the table

"When we took the presidency, people did not have many expectations out of it. Through our G20, we bridged all the divides, found a common ground for countries which were otherwise arguing among themselves, who found it very difficult to reconcile. But, we were able to bridge it," the EAM said.

The 18th G20 Leaders' Summit was held in New Delhi on September 9 and 10. It saw the unanimous adoption of the G20 New Delhi Leaders' Declaration, which demonstrated the commitment of the G20 leaders to address global challenges in an inclusive, decisive and action-oriented manner.

India assumed the G20 Presidency on December 1, 2022.

Meanwhile, EAM Jaishankar further said that what India has done in the past decade is actually the foundation of what lies ahead. "So, there is a direct connection between our achievements, capabilities, aspirations and dreams," he said.

He said that in the last 10 years, there have been some "challenges, some opportunities and some achievements."

"So in many ways, they represent all-round progress, they also tell us what lies ahead of us," he said.

The EAM also talked about the COVID-19 pandemic. He said: "It was called a once-in-a-century happening. I saw the rapidity of the Indian health system. As a society, as a nation, we were able to cope with it and meet the challenging capacities at a very rapid pace.