Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the G20 leaders to come out with a plan which focused on human lives and reduced the hardships faced by economically weaker sections of society due to the unprecedented challenges presented by the Coronavirus pandemic that has taken over 18,500 lives and infected over 400,000 people globally and sent multiple nations into an economic tailspin, said ANI.
PM Modi said there was a need to put human beings at the centre of the grouping’s message.
“Let’s put human beings rather than economic targets at centre of our vision for global prosperity, cooperation,” PTI quoted PM at G20 meet on coronavirus.
The prime minister also said that there was a need for a new concept of globalisation if there had to be an effective global response to the present crisis, the agency said.
“Covid-19 has offered an opportunity to look at a new concept of globalization. One that also focuses on humanity, climate change, and terrorism other than economic & financial aspects,” ANI said.
The G20 grouping met on Thursday through video conferencing and pledged $5 trillion to be injected into the global economy by member nations especially to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.
PM Modi, according to ANI, during the virtual summit, made a point that the forum has become a platform to address financial & economic issues and at many levels, globalization has failed us, whether it is in combating terrorism or climate change.
NSA Ajit Doval & External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar were also present during the conference.
ANI also said that there was no discussion on the origins of the deadly virus, an issue, that had led to an international debate after US President Donald Trump described Covid-19 pandemic as the ‘Chinese Virus’.
“The spirit was collaborative & discussions were held on how to deal with the current crisis. There were no efforts to ascribe blame to anyone for the outbreak of the virus,” ANI said .
