India Takes Up Economic Woes of Poor Nations In Virtual Meet

NEW DELHI (AP) -- India convened a virtual summit of more than 100 developing countries Thursday to evolve a uniform strategy for a redress of their economic woes from the developed world with "the world in a state of crisis."

"It is difficult to predict how long this state of instability will last," Prime Minister Narendra Modi told leaders of Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Uzbekistan, Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Senegal, Mongolia and other nations.

Stressing that developing countries with three-fourths of humanity have the largest stakes in the future, he said "as the 8-decade-old model of global governance slowly changes, we should try to shape the emerging order."

India is steering the Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations' summit in 2023. It is expected to use the opportunity to gain prominence in global decision-making by sharing the economic woes of developing countries in deliberations during its G-20 presidency.

Spread over 10 closed-door sessions on Thursday and Friday, the virtual summit will discuss issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic; the conflict in Ukraine decreasing access and affordability of food, fertilizer and fuel; and mounting debt and inflationary pressures taking a toll on developing countries' economies, India's External Affairs Ministry said.

"Despite the challenges the developing world faces, I remain optimistic that our time is coming. The need of the hour is to identify simple, scalable and sustainable solutions that can transform our societies and economies," Modi said.

Speeches of other participating leaders in the virtual summit were not immediately available.