Manmohan Singh had ‘pivotal role’ in shaping India’s ‘economic trajectory’: Guterres

United Nations, Dec 28 (IANS) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is saddened by the passing of India’s former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who played a “pivotal role” in shaping the nation’s “economic trajectory”, according to his Associate Spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay.

“The Secretary-General was saddened to learn of the passing of Dr Manmohan Singh,” she said in a statement on Friday.

He “played a pivotal role in India’s recent history, particularly in shaping its economic trajectory,” the statement said.

“As Prime Minister from 2004 to 2014, Singh oversaw a period of significant economic growth and development in India.”

“Under his leadership, India also strengthened its collaboration with the United Nations, contributing actively to global initiatives and partnerships,” it added.

Singh cooperated with Guterres’s two predecessors Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon during his 10 years as Prime Minister, meeting them at the UN headquarters in New York as well as at other international forums.

Singh addressed the UN General Assembly five times.

Fighting climate change has been a top item in the UN’s agenda along with sustainable development for poverty eradication.

In pursuing these goals, Singh reiterated India’s commitment but also constantly reminded world leaders that the developing countries’ historical context should be taken into account and the developed countries had a special responsibility in pursuing them.

At the UN Climate Change Conference in Denmark in 2009, he declared, “India was a latecomer to industrialisation and as such we have contributed very little to the accumulation of greenhouse gas emissions that caused global warming, but we are determined to be part of the solution.”

When the negotiations began while he was Prime Minister for the landmark Paris Climate Change Accord that was adopted in 2015, he made it a firm condition that it should be “equitable” taking into account the disproportionate role the developed countries had in creating the greenhouse gas crisis and its consequences suffered by developing countries.

He also attended the Rio+, the UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio De Janeiro in 2012.

While criticising the developed countries for their parsimony in funding development around the world, he also said, “Sustainable development mandates the efficient use of available natural resources. We have to be much more frugal in the way we use natural resources.”

While the UN was working on its ambitious 2030 Sustainable Development Goals that was adopted in 2015 after he left office, Singh emphasised that it should provide funding for developing countries and technology transfer.

In 2013 in his last address to the UN General Assembly, he said, “The problems of over a billion people living in abject poverty around the world need to be attacked more directly. Poverty remains a major political and economic challenge and its eradication requires special attention and a new collective thrust.”

“It is, therefore, important that the UN set clear and concise goals (for its sustainable development agenda) and provide practical and well-defined means of implementation, including the adequate flow of resources and transfer of technology, taking the views of developing countries fully into account,” he added.

–IANS

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