External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar interacted with various foreign ministers at the General Assembly's high-level session to enhance India's relationship with their nations and understand their points of view.
He participated in sessions of three top groups: BRICS, the ten-member block of leading emerging markets; IBSA, India, Brazil, and South Africa; and a combined session of India and CELAC, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.
In these forums, reforming multilateral institutions and promoting trade were on top of the agenda.
Some of the notable diplomats he met included Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Jaishankar posted on Twitter that they had "useful discussion on bilateral ties, the Ukraine conflict and developments in the Middle East."
With United Arab Emirates Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, he noted that they "discussed our bilateral collaboration as we set the stage for the Joint Commission," which is a venue for supporting the two countries' relations. He further stated that he "appreciated his thoughts on current developments."
Austria Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger, following their meeting, thanked for "our thoughtful discussion" and added, "Strengthening our outstanding partnership — both bilaterally with Austria, but also from a European point of view — is undoubtedly in our common interest." Jaishankar posted on X that they had a "vibrant discussion on the geopolitics of the day and the options before India and Europe."
Other foreign ministers with whom he had interactions were Paul Chet Greene from Antigua and Barbuda, Mario Lubetkin from Uruguay, Sugiono from Indonesia, Timothy Musa Kabba from Sierra Leone, and Toiu Oana from Romania.
At the India-CELAC conference, in which Columbia's Foreign Minister Rosa Yolanda Villavicencio co-chaired with him, Jaishankar had tweeted that they concurred "on the need for urgent reform of multilateral institutions to reflect more accurately the Voice of the Global South.
He further noted, "We committed to enhance our current broad-based engagements in areas like agriculture, trade, health, digital, HADR (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief) and capacity building." They also touched on looking into cooperation in new frontier areas like AI, technology, critical minerals, space, and renewables.
Read also| Trump Voices Frustrations with Allies, Yet Stresses NATO Treaty Will Endure
