UN Chief Wants India To Mobilise G20 To Help Debt-Ridden Countries

NDTV News:

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday sought India’s support in mobilising G20 nations to help out developing countries saddled with debt, with three of India’s neighbours already seeking IMF loans as their economies struggle.

India takes over the G20 presidency from Indonesia for a year from December 1. Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh have in recent months sought IMF loans as high oil prices complicate efforts to recover from the economic damage of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I count on India’s support in mobilising G20 countries around debt relief,” Guterres told the students and faculty of the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai. “Many developing countries are at or near debt distress and require multilateral action, including the expansion and extension of the G20 Debt Service Suspension Initiative.”

Established in May 2020 during the pandemic, the initiative allowed nearly 50 countries to suspend $12.9 billion in debt-service payments until the end of last year.

Guterres said climate change was “already a grave threat” to India’s economy, agriculture and food sector, and to the health, lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people.

“Record-breaking heat waves, droughts and floods in parts of India are causing havoc already,” he said. “These are a foretaste of what is to come without much greater global climate action.”