Human-Centric Globalisation: Taking G20 to the Last Mile, Leaving None Behind

 10:16, 7 September 2023

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ – these two words capture a deep philosophy. It means ‘the world is one family’. This is an all-embracing outlook that encourages us to progress as one universal family, transcending borders, languages, and ideologies. During India’s G20 Presidency, this has translated into a call for human-centric progress. As One Earth, we are coming together to nurture our planet. As One Family, we support each other in the pursuit of growth. And we move together towards a shared future – One Future – which is an undeniable truth in these interconnected times.

The post-pandemic world order is very different from the world before it. There are three important changes, among others.

First, there is a growing realisation that a shift away from a GDP-centric view of the world to a human-centric view is needed.

Second, the world is recognizing the importance of resilience and reliability in global supply chains.

Third, there is a collective call for boosting multilateralism through the reform of global institutions.

Our G20 Presidency has played the role of a catalyst in these shifts.

In December 2022, when we took over the Presidency from Indonesia, I had written that a mindset shift must be catalysed by the G20. This was especially needed in the context of mainstreaming the marginalized aspirations of developing countries, the Global South and Africa.

The Voice of Global South Summit in January 2023, which witnessed participation from 125 countries, was one of the foremost initiatives under our Presidency. It was an important exercise to gather inputs and ideas from the Global South. Further, our Presidency has not only seen the largest-ever participation from African countries but has also pushed for the inclusion of the African Union as a permanent member of the G20.

An interconnected world means our challenges across domains are interlinked. This is the midway year of the 2030 Agenda and many are noting with great concern that the progress on SDGs is off-track. The G20 2023 Action Plan on Accelerating Progress on SDGs will spearhead the future direction of the G20 towards implementing SDGs.

In India, living in harmony with nature has been a norm since ancient times and we have been contributing our share towards climate action even in modern times.

Many countries of the Global South are at various stages of development and climate action must be a complementary pursuit. Ambitions for climate action must be matched with actions on climate finance and transfer of technology.

We believe there is a need to move away from a purely restrictive attitude of what should not be done, to a more constructive attitude focusing on what can be done to fight climate change.

The Chennai High-Level Principles for a Sustainable and Resilient Blue Economy focus on keeping our oceans healthy.

A global ecosystem for clean and green hydrogen will emerge from our presidency, along with a Green Hydrogen Innovation Centre.

In 2015, we launched the International Solar Alliance. Now, through the Global Biofuels Alliance, we will support the world to enable energy transitions in tune with the benefits of a circular economy.

Democratising climate action is the best way to impart momentum to the movement. Just as individuals make daily decisions based on their long-term health, they can make lifestyle decisions based on the impact on the planet’s long-term health. Just like Yoga became a global mass movement for wellness, we have also nudged the world with Lifestyles for Sustainable Environment (LiFE).

Due to the impact of climate change, ensuring food and nutritional security will be crucial. Millets, or Shree Anna, can help with this while also boosting climate-smart agriculture. In the International Year of Millets, we have taken millets to global palates. The Deccan High Level Principles on Food Security and Nutrition is also helpful in this direction.

Technology is transformative but it also needs to be made inclusive. In the past, the benefits of technological advancements have not benefited all sections of society equally. India, over the last few years, has shown how technology can be leveraged to narrow inequalities, rather than widen them.

For instance, the billions across the world that remain unbanked, or lack digital identities, can be financially included through digital public infrastructure (DPI). The solutions we have built using our DPI have now been recognised globally. Now, through the G20, we will help developing countries adapt, build, and scale DPI to unlock the power of inclusive growth.

That India is the fastest-growing large economy is no accident. Our simple, scalable and sustainable solutions have empowered the vulnerable and the marginalised to lead our development story. From space to sports, economy to entrepreneurship, Indian women have taken the lead in various sectors. They have shifted the narrative from the development of women to women-led development. Our G20 Presidency is working on bridging the gender digital divide, reducing labour force participation gaps and enabling a larger role for women in leadership and decision-making.

For India, the G20 Presidency is not merely a high-level diplomatic endeavour. As the Mother of Democracy and a model of diversity, we opened the doors of this experience to the world.

Today, accomplishing things at scale is a quality that is associated with India. The G20 Presidency is no exception. It has become a people-driven movement. Over 200 meetings will have been organised in 60 Indian cities across the length and breadth of our nation, hosting nearly 100,000 delegates from 125 countries by the end of our term. No Presidency has ever encompassed such a vast and diverse geographical expanse.

It is one thing to hear about India’s demography, democracy, diversity and development from someone else. It is totally different to experience them first-hand. I am sure our G20 delegates would vouch for this.

Our G20 Presidency strives to bridge divides, dismantle barriers, and sow seeds of collaboration that nourish a world where unity prevails over discord, where shared destiny eclipses isolation. As the G20 President, we had pledged to make the global table larger, ensuring that every voice is heard and every country contributes. I am positive that we have matched our pledge with actions and outcomes.

Article by the Prime Minister of India, Mr. Narendra Modi regarding the G-20 Presidency




PM Pashinyan congratulates Brazilian President on Independence Day

 10:38, 7 September 2023

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has congratulated President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on the occasion of Independence Day.

"Your Excellency,

“I warmly congratulate you and the friendly people of Brazil on the occasion of the national day of the Federative Republic of Brazil, the Independence Day.

“Armenia is interested in developing and deepening the multifaceted Armenian-Brazilian relations for the benefit of our two countries and peoples.

“I am confident that with joint efforts we will be able to raise our cooperation to a new level in various areas of mutual interest.

“I wish you good health and success, and prosperity and peace to the friendly people of Brazil,” Pashinyan said in the letter addressed to President of Brazil Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Congressman Frank Pallone calls for ‘meaningful action’ to end blockade, hold Aliyev responsible for aggression

 10:47, 7 September 2023

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 7, ARMENPRESS. United States Congressman Frank Pallone has called for 'meaningful action' to achieve an end to the Azeri blockade of the Lachin Corridor.

Pallone commented on Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s September 1 phone call with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, when Blinken urged the Azeri leader to end the blockade.

“Secretary Blinken is rightfully calling for an end to the blockade of the Lachin Corridor, but these words must be met with meaningful action. Especially, as the humanitarian crisis in Artsakh continues to worsen,” Pallone said in a post on X.

“There must be real consequences for Aliyev's crimes against humanity and his deliberate campaign of ethnic cleansing in Artsakh. Peace in the Caucasus will continue to be evasive if Aliyev is not held responsible for Azerbaijan's aggression against the Armenian people,” he added.

Armenpress: Azerbaijan generates more fake news on Nagorno-Karabakh

 09:44, 8 September 2023

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. The Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense has again falsely accused the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Army of carrying out fortification works in the Askeran region. The Azeri authorities further falsely claimed to have thwarted the activities, the Defense Ministry of Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) said Friday. It branded the Azeri accusations as the “usual kind of disinformation.”

“By generating fake news, the Azerbaijani Ministry of Defense continues the information preparations for its next provocation,” the Nagorno-Karabakh Defense Ministry added.

Armenia manager says players are all geared up for UEFA Euro-2024 qualifier against Türkiye

 10:38, 8 September 2023

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. Armenia manager Alexander Petrakov has said that his players are ready for the upcoming UEFA Euro-2024 qualification round match against Türkiye.

Armenia will face Türkiye on September 8 at the Eskişehir Yeni Stadyumu in the northwestern Turkish city of Eskişehir.

Speaking at a press conference in Eskişehir, Petrakov said that the match against Turkiye is highly important and that the Armenian players are healthy and ready.

Prime Minister Pashinyan’s wife meets with members of the Armenian community of Ukraine in Kyiv

 12:10, 8 September 2023

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s wife Anna Hakobyan has met in Kyiv with members of the Armenian community of Ukraine.

The meeting was attended by Armenian families, together with their children, living in Kyiv, Odessa, Dnipro, Cherkasy, Kirovohrad, Sumy, Khmelnytskyi, Chernihiv oblasts, as well as the city of Kryvyi Rih.

Hakobyan talked with the children, asked them how they were overcoming the days of war. The Armenian children were interested in the life in Armenia, and what the children in Armenia are doing.

Asked on the security situation, Hakobyan said that although the situation in Armenia is difficult, it is not as difficult as in Ukraine, and at the same time she said that the Armenian government is doing everything possible to establish peace. The children asked Hakobyan what steps Armenia is taking to have closer relations with Ukraine, and Hakobyan said that’s the reason of her visit. The children said they want to visit Armenia very much and Hakobyan suggested them to continue their education in Armenia.

All attendees, both adults and children, said they’re impatiently waiting for the opportunity to travel to Armenia.

Hakobyan conveyed to the children the Armenian government’s humanitarian aid (smartphones and computers).

The members of the Armenian community of Ukraine thanked Hakobyan for the meeting and said that the whole community has been waiting for the meeting for many years.

Anna Hakobyan underscored the importance of achieving sustainable peace, in Armenia, in Ukraine and elsewhere around the world.

The Armenian PM’s spouse then met with the Armenian embassy staff, as well as renowned Ukraine-based Armenian filmmaker Roman Balayan and painter Boris Yeghiazaryan.

[see video]

Armenian Foreign Minister holds phone call with U.S. acting Assistant Secretary of State for European, Eurasian Affairs

 11:16, 8 September 2023

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 8, ARMENPRESS. On September 7, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan had a telephone conversation with Yuri Kim, the U.S. acting Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs.

Regional security issues and the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh were discussed, the foreign ministry said in a readout. 

Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan reiterated the need to lift the illegal blockade of the Lachin corridor by Azerbaijan in accordance with the Statement of November 9, 2020 and two Orders of the International Court of Justice. The importance of ensuring unimpeded access and humanitarian activities of the International Committee of the Red Cross to Nagorno-Karabakh was emphasised.

Minister Mirzoyan thoroughly touched upon the destructive behaviour carried out by Azerbaijan during this period, systemic policy of ethnic cleansing in Nagorno-Karabakh, the disrespect towards its own commitments and clear calls of the international community. The need to establish an effective international mechanism for discussing rights and security guarantees between Stepanakert and Baku was emphasised.

The agenda of bilateral cooperation was touched upon.

Kremlin indignant at Armenia for "unfriendly steps", including aid to Ukraine

Sept 9 2023

Armenia denies Azerbaijan’s charge its troops opened fire as tensions flare

Reuters
Sept 9 2023
  • Azerbaijan reports exchange of fire
  • Armenian PM calls Blinken, Macron, Scholz, Raisi
  • Azerbaijan condemns vote in Karabakh

TBILISI, Sept 9 (Reuters) – Azerbaijan said on Saturday that Armenian forces had fired on its troops overnight, and that Azerbaijan army units took "retaliatory measures", in an incident denied by Armenia.

The claim and counter-claim came against the backdrop of rising tensions between the two countries, which have fought two wars over the Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in the past three decades, and a flurry of calls to foreign leaders by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Azerbaijan's defence ministry said Armenian units opened small arms fire on Azerbaijani soldiers in Sadarak in the north of Nakhchivan, an exclave of Azerbaijan that borders Armenia, Turkey and Iran.

The ministry's statement did not say if there had been any casualties. Armenia's defence ministry denied that its forces had opened fire on Azerbaijani positions.

The Armenian government said Pashinyan held phone conversations on Saturday with the leaders of France, Germany, neighbouring Iran and Georgia, and with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Azerbaijan said its foreign minister discussed the situation with a senior U.S. State Department official, Yuri Kim.

Pashinyan said in the calls that tensions were rising on the border and Azerbaijan was concentrating troops there and around Nagorno-Karabakh, his government said. Baku has denied this, while accusing Armenia of doing the same thing.

Pashinyan said he was ready to hold an urgent meeting with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to defuse tensions, the government said. But Hikmet Hajiyev, foreign policy adviser to Aliyev, told Reuters that Baku had received no such offer.

Azerbaijan meanwhile denounced the holding on Saturday of a presidential election in Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory that is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan but is populated by about 120,000 ethnic Armenians.

Nagorno-Karabakh established de facto independence in a war in the early 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, but Azerbaijan recaptured significant amounts of territory in its most recent war with Armenia, in 2020.

Azerbaijan has cut off the road that links Armenia to Karabakh for the past nine months, except for urgent medical cases, leading to shortages of basic supplies, including bread.

It has accused Armenia of using the corridor to smuggle weapons, and of rejecting an offer to reopen the road simultaneously with another route into Karabakh.

On Saturday, Karabakh's separatist parliament elected Samvel Shahramanyan, a military officer and former head of the territory's security service, as its new president, after the previous incumbent resigned earlier this month.

In a speech to parliament, Shahramanyan called for direct negotiations with Azerbaijan, and for transport links to Armenia to be restored.

Azerbaijan's foreign ministry called the ethnic Armenian leadership of Karabakh a "puppet separatist regime" and in a statement said the vote was illegal.

"The only way to achieve peace and stability in the region is the unconditional and complete withdrawal of the Armenian armed forces from the Karabakh region of Azerbaijan and the disbandment of the puppet regime," the statement said.

In statements, both Ukraine and Baku's traditional ally Turkey condemned the election, and expressed support for Azerbaijan's claim to Karabakh. The European Union said it did not recognise the election, but that Karabakh residents should "consolidate around the de facto leadership" in talks with Baku.

Russia has had peacekeepers in Karabakh since 2020 but Armenia has voiced frustration at what it sees as their ineffectiveness, blaming Russia's preoccupation with Ukraine.

In the capitals of both Armenia and Azerbaijan, residents told Reuters they feared a new war between the two countries.

"We will probably have martyrs again," said Mansura Lahicova, a woman in the Azerbaijani capital Baku. "I have two sons who have reached military age. I hope it will be a victory and that everything calms down."

In Armenia's capital Yerevan, a local resident who gave his name as Hayk accused Azerbaijan of wanting to start another war.

"I hope this does not happen, but if it does, all of us, all friends and brothers, are ready to go to war. Last time we buried our friends, now it's our turn."

Writing by Mark Trevelyan and Felix Light Editing by Ros Russell

Looming Azerbaijan-Armenia War Signals Geopolitical Shifts

Iran International
Sept 7 2023

Thursday, 09/07/2023

Author: Iran International Newsroom

Renewed tensions between Azerbaijan and Armenia portend major geopolitical shifts in the region with the US edging closer to Yerevan as Russia is embroiled in Ukraine. 

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan accused Azerbaijan on Thursday of building up troops along the line of contact in Nagorno-Karabakh disputed region and the Armenian-Azerbaijan border. In the past week, both Yerevan and Baku reported casualties after intense shelling near their common border.

The escalation comes amid a continuing crisis over Nagorno-Karabakh where Yerevan and local ethnic Armenian authorities accuse Baku of continuing its “illegal blockade” of the region, resulting in severe shortages of food, fuel, and medicine as well as a rationing of bread. Azerbaijan has justified its nine-month Azerbaijani blockade of the highway linking Armenia to the enclave — internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan but populated by around 120,000 ethnic Armenians — by saying Armenia was using the road to supply weapons to Karabakh, which Armenia denies. The critical Lachin corridor serves as the sole communication route between Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan attends a meeting with Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev on the sidelines of the Eurasian Economic Union summit in Moscow, Russia May 25, 2023.

Tensions are simmering as the Armenian Defense Ministry announced earlier in the month that it will hold a joint war game with NATO forces from September 11-20, dubbed Eagle Partner 2023 aimed at increasing the level of interoperability of units participating in international peacekeeping missions. 

Traditionally, Armenia has leaned on Russia and Iran, both nations against any border changes between the two longtime rivals. However, Yerevan seems to have recently distanced itself from Moscow, perhaps because Russia is engrossed in its invasion of Ukraine as well as its warming ties with Turkey and Azerbaijan. 

The joint drill with the United States forces can be construed as Armenia leaning towards the West to secure support in case of a looming military conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Pashinyan recently said that exclusive dependence on Russia does not serve Armenia's security well anymore, a statement that Moscow described as "public rhetoric bordering on rudeness".

RFE/RL’s Armenian Service reported this week that Armenia is providing humanitarian assistance to Ukraine for the first time since the Russian invasion of the country. Sources told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that Pashinyan’s wife, Anna Hakobian, will personally hand over aid to the Ukrainian side when she flies to Kyiv to attend the annual Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen. 

Despite the small scale of the joint military exercise, Russia – which sees itself as the pre-eminent power in the South Caucasus region that was part of the Soviet Union until 1991 – said it would be watching closely. "Of course, such news causes concern, especially in the current situation. Therefore, we will deeply analyze this news and monitor the situation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this week, adding, "In this situation, holding such exercises does not contribute to stabilizing the situation in any case and strengthening the atmosphere of mutual trust in the region." 

Russia maintains a peacekeeping force in the region to uphold an agreement that ended a war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in 2020, the second they have fought since the Soviet collapse. 

Footage on social media in recent days also showed increasing Azerbaijani military movements near the front line between the two countries. According to Crisis Watch – a global conflict tracker, several cargo aircraft have airlifted hundreds of tons of weapons including ballistic missiles from Israel and Turkey to Baku, adding that “Azerbaijan’s Air Force received a new batch of Bayraktar TB2 armed drones from Turkey in order to use them in its incoming invasion of Armenia.”

“Azerbaijan is ready for another invasion of Armenia. They are just waiting for Turkey to get Iran's permission," said military expert and author Babak Taghvaee. Iran has been deeply concerned about Azerbaijani moves to establish a corridor through Armenian territory to a piece of its territory to the west. While an Azerbaijani military threat exists to force such a corridor, Iran will lose its historic land connection with Armenia. Tensions over the transit road have led to military exercises conducted by the Iranian armed forces near the border with Azerbaijan in recent years.

Earlier in September, US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken also spoke with Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev to express the United States’ concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, calling to reopen the Lachin Corridor to humanitarian, commercial, and passenger traffic. He also underscored the need for dialogue and compromise and the importance of building confidence between the parties, and pledged continued US support to the peace process.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202309070919