"Need to ask if existing modalities are enough to address complex challenges we face," MEA Secy (West)

Apia [Samoa], October 24 : Tanmaya Lal, Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs, while addressing Pre-CHOGM Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Apia, Samoa said that Samoa and India should carefully evaluate the needs of all our members against the means in hand -- both material and human resources.
Lal said that both the countries should introspect if the existing modalities are enough to address the complex challenges they face.
"We need to ask if our existing modalities are enough to address the complex challenges we face. We should carefully evaluate the needs of all our members against the means in hand -- both material and human resources -- so that we prioritize urgent and the essential tasks," he said.
Lal said that he looked forward to implement the reform agenda their heads had set at Kigali.
"We also look forward to working with Partners to implement the reform agenda our Heads had set before us at Kigali. And we appreciate work done so far, especially by the Informal Working Groups. Our theme recognizes that our fates and future are inextricably interlinked, and therefore the need for real collaboration. This theme was also reflected in last year's G20 Summit under India's Presidency, 'One Earth, One Family, One Future'," he said.
Lal recollected how the Covid impacted the world and proved that the whole world is intertwined.
"The last few years have sharply underscored this reality, through an unprecedented global pandemic, extreme climate events, and ongoing conflicts which impact on food and fuel security. Our economies, societies and indeed, our destiny, are entwined. This was also why world leaders adopted a Pact for the Future at the UN last month, calling for reformed global governance," he said.
Lal said that India is doing its share to deliver on SDGs
"As the most populous nation, we in India are doing our share to deliver upon global SDGs, health, climate, economic growth and innovation. In the last decade, digitalization of governance has provided citizenship-centric delivery at scale in India. For instance, 500 million new bank accounts, half of these for women; over 110 billion FinTech transactions a year. Similar transformation is underway in education, healthcare and precision in water and land use for development," he said.
Lal said that the digital stack of the technology is replicable and can be modified by the partners as per their needs.
"This Digital Stack of technologies is open source, modular and replicable. And they are also available for all our partners to modify to their own circumstances and deploy as well for their own development needs. An area of focus for the Commonwealth has been the delivery of democratic systems, in particular elections," he said.
Lal talked about elections and said that India has a considerable amount of experience here.
"As a nation with some 900 million eligible voters and a long tradition of organizing and holding effective and accurate elections, including most recently this June, India has considerable experience. Our Election Commission welcomes partners to share experience in management of electoral systems, including deploying technology in support of transparent, free and fair elections. An important recent development is the passing of a law that mandates a reservation of one third of seats in national parliament for women," he said.
Lal said that India endorsed the idea of greater trade between both countries.
"We endorse the idea of greater trade between us, and partnerships to share technologies, ranging from cutting-edge AI systems to technologies to reduce the carbon intensity of development activities. India's bilateral and plurilateral development partnership programmes continue to grow significantly. All are tailored according to the needs and priorities of partners, and in most cases, are aimed at delivering quick impact," he said.
Lal said that the India-UN Fund, which also has a special window for Commonwealth partners, runs 80 projects in 60 countries.
"The India-UN Fund, which also has a special window for Commonwealth partners, runs 80 projects in 60 countries, half being in Commonwealth members. These range from education and healthcare to climate action; from infrastructure to capacity building. We should increase our focus on mitigation of the impact of humanitarian and other emergencies. Today India is among the First Responders in dealing with humanitarian emergencies not only in the Indian Ocean but beyond," he said.
Lal said that India's huge concern is climate change as 1/3rd of its population lives along the coasts.
"On climate action, India has serious concerns about global warming including sea level rise, as 1/3rd of our population lives along our coasts. Therefore, India is among the very few G20 economies who have met their NDCs, indeed, ahead of schedule. We have ambitious targets including reaching 500 GW of renewable energy capacity and implementing a huge Hydrogen Mission, both by the end of this decade. Internationally, we work with partners to advance climate mitigation and adaptation through the International Solar Alliance, Coalition of Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, Leadership Group for Industry Transition, Global Biofuel Alliance and Mission LiFE --Lifestyle for the Environment. CDRI has a unique initiative - the Infrastructure for Resilient Islands States Initiative (IRIS) that is co-owned, co-managed and co-operated by SIDS. This programe recently won the 2024 UN SIDS partnership Award," he said.