India has full faith in the principles of the United Nations and its Charter, EAM Jaishankar said

India stands committed to strengthen its partnerships with the United Nations (UN) to ensure a brighter future for the planet, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday.

He was speaking at 'India@75: India-UN Partnership' event at the 77th session of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Saturday.

"Our foundational belief is that India’s own development is inseparable from that of the rest of the world. Without doubt, our progress and growth has also benefitted from our interface with the United Nations and its agencies. India, as you all know, was a founding member of the UN and as we mark 75 years of freedom, we also celebrate 75 years of our partnership with the UN," he said.

According to EAM Jaishankar, the India UN Development Partnership Fund is particularly symbolic, because it is the first-ever single country South-South initiative at the UN. It currently extends to 66 development projects in 51 countries, he added.

Referring to peacekeeping, EAM Jaishankar said India had contributed over the years more than a quarter million personnel to this effort, more than any other country.

He said India had also enabled two major initiatives for global climate action. "The first is the International Solar Alliance which India pioneered with France in 2015, on sidelines of COP21. Today, it has over 100 members. The second is the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure in which India is the founder member," he noted.

The External Affairs Minister went on to say that India had full faith in the principles of the United Nations and its Charter, and "in our belief in reformed multilateralism as key to shared goals of the world".

'UNPRECEDENTED GLOBAL CRISIS'

"The Covid-19 Pandemic is an unprecedented global crisis. When needed, we responded first with vaccines for our friends in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and our own neighborhood," EAM Jaishankar pointed out.

The conflict in Ukraine has aggravated food and energy inflation to make it one of the biggest challenges of our times, he added. India had responded by supplying food grains, including as grant assistance in recent years to Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Yemen and several countries in Africa, he said.

EAM Jaishankar declared that by 2047 —when the country completes 100 years after Independence — India expects to be a developed nation. He continued by saying that India had aspirations of landing on the moon and digitizing its most remote villages.

Talking about India's development, he explained that it rests on an expansive Digital Public Infrastructure designed to promote that no one is left behind.

"In recent days, digital technology has successfully advanced our food-safety net to 800 million Indians, more than US$300 billion of benefits have been distributed digitally, 400 million people get food regularly and we have administered over 2 billion vaccinations and the secret of that is indeed Digital," EAM Jaishankar said.