"Absolutely stunning": Bhutan Foreign Minister Tandi Dorji lauds India's G20 Presidency

New York [US], September 24 (ANI): Bhutan's Foreign Minister Tandi Dorji on Saturday (local time) lauded India's G20 Presidency calling it "stunning and exemplary." He called India a "very strong partner" for Bhutan. 
In an exclusive interview with ANI, Tandi Dorji said, "India has always been a very strong partner for Bhutan and will continue to wish India the best. And we hope that India will continue to be the voice of the Global South."
"Absolutely stunning, as I mentioned, India's presidency of the G20 was very, very exemplary. In that, it represented all of the global south. And for the entire year, India has always included the participation of all the countries from the Global South. And we are very, very proud to be a partner of India," he added. 
Speaking to ANI, Samoa Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mataʻafa said, "The colleagues who spoke on the presidency of India's G20 encapsulated, I think, the general feeling of the South in terms of India's leadership and stewardship of the development process and in partnerships with the South. And I think there's been a significant leadership role. And you can see by the representation at the meeting today people's appreciation of that leadership, which is very much needed in the current geopolitical framework and architecture."

In an interview with ANI, three-time Grammy Award-Winning Ricky Kej said that India is taking strong leadership considering how highly the leaders have spoken about India's role in the South South Cooperation. Kej said that India has been looked upon as a leader of the Global South and he feels "proud about it." 
Ricky Kej said, "I'm really glad to be at this beautiful event over here in New York on the sidelines of the General Assembly Week. And it's so amazing to see where India is right now, because in the past, we've always felt that India was always on the sidelines when it came intergovernmental decisions and right now, India is not only participating, but India is taking strong leadership, especially right now, looking at all these amazing excellencies speaking about India's role in South South cooperation that India has looked upon as a leader of the Global South."

He further said, "And it made me so proud to see all of these amazing leaders speaking so highly about our country, India. And under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, we're really going from strength to strength. We are taking all of these countries along with us and moving forward because, as they say about Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, at the end of the day, it's one planet, it's one family, andit's one common future for all of us. And we are taking that very, very seriously."
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, UNGA President and foreign Ministers of several nations, including Bhutan, Dominica have participated in the India-UN for Global South: Delivering for Development event. 
Jaishankar called India's G20 Presidency challenging due to a "very sharp East-West polarization and a very deep North-South divide."
In his address at India-UN for Global South: Delivering for Development in New York, Jaishankar began his speech by speaking about India's G20 Presidency and recently held the G20 Summit. He said that India was very determined to ensure that India's G20 Presidency was able to get back to its core agenda.
"Your presence means a lot to us. It also expresses the sentiments that you feel for India and underlines the import of South-South cooperation. We meet just a few weeks after the New Delhi G20 Summit, a summit which took place on the theme of 'One Earth, One Family, One Future," Jaishankar said.
"Now, it was a challenging summit. It was actually a challenging presidency, and it was challenging because we were confronting a very sharp East-West polarization as well as a very deep North-South divide. But we were very determined as the Presidency of the G20 to make sure that this organization on which the world really had put so much hope and was able to get back to its core agenda," he added.
Jaishankar stressed that the core agenda of India's G20 Presidency was global growth and development. He said that India began its G20 Presidency by convening the voice of the Global South Summit.
"And its core agenda was of global growth and development. So it was appropriate that we started our G20 Presidency by convening the voice of the Global South Summit. An exercise which involved 125 nations of the south of which most of you in some capacity participated," Jaishankar said. (ANI)