India looking for solutions for many other countries: UNGA President

United Nations: Describing India as “one of the leaders of the Global South”, UN General Assembly President Csaba Korosi said there are great similarities between Indian strategic thinking and that of the body. UN on the need to transform the world.
Korosi will arrive in India on Sunday for a three-day visit at the invitation of Foreign Minister S Jaishankar. This is his first bilateral visit to a country since he assumed office as president of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in September 2022.“I travel to India with very high hopes,” he told PTI ahead of his visit.“I see similarities, great similarities between India’s strategic thinking about how this world should look, what kind of transformation this world needs and the General Assembly’s thinking about how we are transforming, how we are transforming this organization and how we are transforming some of the transactions that we have in the world. So my key message will be to partners – I’m going there to seek cooperation,” Korosi said.His talks with Jaishankar are expected to focus on India’s engagement with the UN body as well as sustainable water use.Calling India “one of the leaders in the Global South”, Korosi said India is one of the largest economies in the world and is on the verge of becoming the most populous nation on the planet.
“India has a good feeling that this world is changing very rapidly. India is experiencing many of the crises we are facing, in different forms, in an interconnected way, all over the world. India is looking for its own solutions and in many cases not just for itself but for many other countries,” he said.Korosi noted that he finds his presidency’s motto of “solutions through solidarity, sustainability and science” “resonating” with some of the priorities of the Indian government, India’s G20 Presidency and long-term vision. country for growth and development.India assumed the G20 presidency for one year on December 1, 2022, amid the challenges of the Ukraine conflict and the global economic downturn.“I see and feel the huge challenge facing the Indian presidency,” he said.Korosi will visit the Indian G20 Secretariat and meet a delegation led by G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant. He noted that the G20, created after the Asian financial crisis, has grown institutionally and expanded its agenda to several other areas.
The slogan “One Earth One Family One Future” of the Indian G20 Presidency is “very, very broad” and “it means that the Indian Presidency seeks global responsibility in terms of the G20”, he said.He noted that the war in Ukraine has impacted many platforms and deliberations due to the “deep geopolitical divide”.Korosi stressed that he looked forward to discussing with Kant how he thinks the G20 platform can contribute to global crisis management and global transformation.Because I see a potential similarity between what the (G20) platform can offer the world and what the General Assembly can bring to the international community, he said.Korosi also hopes to discuss “in a concrete way” with the Indian government and stakeholders solutions to pressing global challenges, including food security and stability, water and energy crises, assess how the agendas of the water and climate can be integrated, as well as ways to stimulate the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals.“The SDGs are about transforming the world. Obviously, there are a lot of good results around the world in many countries, but the overall result is still quite disappointing. Where India goes matters,” he said.Korosi pointed out that a “big missing part” of assessing SDG implementation is scientific support.
“Scientific support is far too disorganized and weak,” he said, adding that he hopes to discuss ways to jointly develop scientific support for the assessment and validation of the SDGs, as well as programs on the water and climate.
One of the main purposes of Korosi’s visit will also be to establish links between the General Assembly and science, particularly on water, ahead of the United Nations Water Conference to be held at United Nations Headquarters. United Nations in March, co-hosted by Tajikistan and the Netherlands.Korosi will travel to Bengaluru, where he is expected to visit a water project site and interact with national scientists and scholars at the Indian Institute of Science.On issues related to sustainable water use, Korosi said that India has started facing a lot of water-related challenges including drought, declining groundwater levels, pollution of fresh water resources, flooding, earlier than some other countries in the world.“India has experience in these areas for much longer than some other countries,” he said, adding that solutions to these challenges cannot be short-term or unsustainable.He said the world needs to find real game changers, including making water a driver of the economy, finding real value in water at all levels – societal, economic and environmental.
Korosi warned that by 2040, around 40% of the inhabited globe will face very severe water scarcity and the difference between freshwater availability and demand will be 40%.“It’s really huge,” he said.
Water scarcity does not only concern drinking water or municipal supply, but also food production.
“India is poised to tackle some of the challenges and work on the solutions a little earlier than some other countries,” Korosi said.Stressing that these challenges require a different approach, Korosi said he hopes to have a “good discussion” with Indian government partners on how “we readjust our economic thinking around sustainability, water use and value of water”. “It could also stimulate scientific thinking in this house,” he said, referring to the UN.