India with 14 million cases becomes world’s second most affected nation after the US with 31 million cases.
With the corona pandemic ravaging the world for over a year, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for creating systems that address the “problems of today and challenges of tomorrow” for the entire humanity.
“And we must think of the entire humanity and not merely of those who are on our side of the borders,” he said virtually inaugurating the edition of the four day Raisina dialogue on Tuesday.
“Humanity as a whole must be at the center of our thinking and action,” he said calling it a “watershed moment in human history,” and noting “the last such Global pandemic was a century ago.”
“Although Humanity has faced many infectious diseases since then, the world today is under-prepared to handle the Covid-19 pandemic,” Modi said posing some questions to the participants.
Calling upon world leaders and thinkers “to emerge as a powerful voice for a human centric approach,” Modi noted that while we may be used to having Plan A and plan B, there is no Planet B, only planet Earth.”
“And so we must remember that we hold this planet merely as trustees for our future Generations.”
Named after Raisina Hill, the seat of the Indian government in New Delhi, the dialogue is India’s flagship conference on geoeconomics and geopolitics. Held annually since 2016, the dialogue is jointly organized by the External Affairs Ministry and Observer Research Foundation.
The inaugural session of 2021 dialogue with the theme, ‘ViralWorld: Outbreaks, Outliers, and Out of Control’, was also joined by the Prime Minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, and the President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame.
S. Jaishankar: Post-Covid world will be more multi-polar and pluralistic, and India will help make a difference (March 19, 2021)
“All the governments of the world at all levels are trying to contain and control this pandemic. Why did it come to this?” Modi asked.
“Is it perhaps because in the race of economic development the concern for welfare of humanity has been left behind. Is it perhaps because in the age of competition, the spirit of cooperation has been forgotten,” he wondered.
After the end of the second world war, over the next few decades many structures and institutions were created, the Prime Minister suggested, “to prevent the last war not the next one.”
“In fact while humanity has not faced the Third World War, the threat of violence has not reduced in people’s lives,” he said noting, “With a number of proxy wars and unending terror attacks, the prospect of violence is ever present.”
“The Covid-19 pandemic has presented us an opportunity to reshape the world order, to reorient our thinking,” Modi said suggesting, “Humanity as a whole must be at the center of our thinking and action.”
“During this pandemic, in our own humble way, within our own limited resources, we in India have tried to walk the talk,” he said noting that India had tried to protect its own 1.3 billion citizens from the pandemic.
“At the same time we have also tried to support the pandemic response efforts of others,” Modi said, “In our neighborhood, we have encouraged our coordinated regional response to the crisis.”
Last year India shared medicines and protective equipment with over 150 countries.
“We understand fully, that mankind will not defeat the pandemic unless all of us, everywhere, regardless of the color of our passports, come out of it,” Modi said. “That is why, this year despite many constraints, we have supplied vaccine to over 80 countries.”
The 6th edition of the dialogue ending Friday will have 50 sessions with the participation of 150 speakers from 50 different countries as well as multilateral organizations.
More than 2000 attendees from over 80 countries including the US are likely to join the dialogue through various social media platforms.
Raisina Dialogue is described as “India’s contribution to the global efforts for discovering solutions, providing stability, and identifying opportunities to a century that has already witnessed an eventful two decades.”
Since its inception in 2016, the dialogue has attracted leading minds from the global strategic and policy-making community for discussing broader foreign policy as well as strategic issues facing the world.