Solution to multilateralism is reformed multilateralism, says External Affairs Minister Jaishankar

Jaishankar said the international community needs to ask itself how long this is going to continue.

The solution to globalisation is decentralisation and the solution to multilateralism is reformed multilateralism, not a 1945-version of multilateralism, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said.

Speaking at an event titled ‘The G20 Imperative: Green Growth and Development for All’ organised by the Observer Research Foundation in New York, Mr. Jaishankar said the two words under attack currently are globalisation and multilateralism.

“I don't think there's anything wrong with either of them. What is challengeable is how they have been implemented. Has multilateralism failed us? I will say this form of multilateralism in the hands of these people perhaps has not delivered," he said.

Mr. Jaishankar was in conversation with U.K.'s Minister of State for Development, Foreign Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), Vicky Ford and World Economic Forum President Borge Brende in a discussion moderated by President of Observer Research Foundation Samir Saran.

Mr. Jaishankar added that the solution is really more multilateralism.

“Why are we all here this week?”, he said, pointing to the international community gathering in New York during the high-level UN General Assembly week.

"We're all here this week because at the end of the day, people still believe in the UN, coming here, sitting together, working it out, finding a system,” he said.