NEW DELHI: Describing India as a natural ally of G7, PM Narendra Modi said democracy and freedom were a part of India’s civilisational ethos while sharing concerns that open societies were particularly vulnerable to disinformation and cyber attacks and underlining the need to ensure that cyber space remains an avenue for advancing democratic values and not subverting it.
Invited to speak as the lead speaker in a session on ‘Open Societies’, Modi’s references to cyber space can be read in the context of disinformation, commercial data theft and cyber attacks becoming a part of tactics employed by state actors.
The leaders later adopted the ‘Open Societies Statement’ that hailed, among other things, freedom of expression, both online and offline, as a freedom that safeguards democracy and helps people live free from fear and oppression.
“PM highlighted India’s civilisational commitment to democracy, freedom of thought and liberty.
As the world’s largest democracy, India is a natural ally for the G7 and guest countries in defending these shared values from a host of threats stemming from authoritarianism, terrorism and violent extremism, disinformation and infodemics and economic coercion,” MEA’s additional secretary (economic relations) P Harish said at a press conference.
Indian officials also said the G7 leaders underlined their commitment to a free, open and a rules-based Indo-Pacific and resolved to collaborate with partners in the region — another reference to the grouping’s intent to counter Chinese claims in the region.
Read AlsoPM Modi’s call for patent waiver on Covid vaccines gets widespread support at G7, says MEAPM Modi on Sunday said that India is a “natural ally” of the Group of 7 nations that share common values and concerns.
Virtually addressing the G7 Summit, PM Modi highlighted India’s civilisational commitment to democracy, freedom of thought and liberty.
He said that India is a natural ally toHighlighting the non-democratic and unequal nature of global governance institutions, Modi called for reform of the multilateral system as the best signal of commitment to the cause of open societies.
Senior MEA officials said after the summit that there was widespread support at the meetings for text-based negotiations on a proposal by India and South Africa for patent waiver on Covid-19 vaccines.
The waiver is expected to help countries like India ramp up vaccine production.
Participating in another session on climate change, Modi highlighted that the planet’s atmosphere, biodiversity and oceans could not be protected by countries acting in silos, and called for collective action on climate change.
Speaking about India’s unwavering commitment to climate action, he mentioned the commitment by Indian Railways to achieve net-zero emissions by 2030.
“He stressed that India is the only G20 country on track to meet its Paris commitments.
He also took note of the increasing effectiveness of the two major global initiatives nurtured by India, ie the CDRI and the International Solar Alliance,” the government said, adding Modi also stressed that developing countries needed better access to climate finance, and called for a holistic approach towards climate change.
Modi also called on the G7 to meet its unfulfilled promise of $100 billion annually in climate finance.
“India has closely engaged with the UK G7 presidency, which is also holding simultaneously the co-presidency of the COP26 Summit, which will be held later this year to come up with ambitious targets for ourselves in the run-up to the COP26 meeting.
Our achievements have been highlighted by the UK in the presidency statement they have released on the ‘Road to COP26’,” Harish said.
Modi also highlighted the “revolutionary impact” of digital technologies on social inclusion and empowerment in India through applications such as Aadhaar, Direct Benefit Transfer and JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) trinity.
In his remarks, the PM underscored the vulnerabilities inherent in open societies and called on tech companies and social media platforms to ensure a safe cyber environment for their users, Harish said.
“The PM’s views were appreciated by other leaders in the gathering,” he added.