Need of the hour is 'One Earth, One Health': EAM Dr. S Jaishankar at 18th RIC Foreign Ministers Meet

India at RIC Meeting: Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar chaired the 18th meeting of Foreign Ministers of Russia, India, and China virtually on November 26, 2021. 

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had taken part in the meeting through video conference. India had taken over the chairmanship of the RIC after the last RIC Foreign Ministers meeting in Moscow in September 2020. The RIC Chairmanship will now pass on to China's Foreign Minister for the next year. 

Addressing the virtual meet, EAM Jaishankar urged the RIC Countries to coordinate their approaches on terrorism, radicalization and work together to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches Afghanistan without any hindrance and politicization.

EAM Jaishankar at RIC Meet: Key Highlights 

•EAM Jaishankar while addressing the meeting said that our approach to global development should be human-centric. 

•He stated that the need of the hour is 'One Earth, One Health', adding that COVID has shown interdependence of the interconnected world. 

Our approach to global development should be human-centric. COVID has shown interdependence of the interconnected world. The need of the hour is 'One Earth, One Health': EAM Dr S Jaishankar at the 18th meeting of the Russia-India-China Foreign Ministers

(Source: MEA) pic.twitter.com/q2G5krcQrn

— ANI (@ANI) November 26, 2021

•The Union Minister stressed that as a neighbour & long-standing partner of Afghanistan, India is concerned about the recent developments in that country, especially the sufferings of the Afghan people.

•He reiterated that India supports an inclusive & representative govt in Afghanistan and also other resolutions of UN 2593.

•He further highlighted that the RIC countries need to work together to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches the Afghan people without hindrance & politicisation. 

RIC countries need to work together to ensure that humanitarian assistance reaches the Afghan people without hindrance & politicisation. It is necessary for the RIC countries to coordinate respective approaches on the threats of terrorism, drug trafficking & radicalisation: EAM

— ANI (@ANI) November 26, 2021

•EAM emphasised on the importance of RIC countries to coordinate their respective approaches on threats of terrorism, radicalization and drug trafficking.

•EAM further highlighted that India has offered 50 metric tons of wheat as humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan to address the drought situation in the country. 

•He shared that Pakistan has allowed humanitarian assistance from India to be sent to Afghanistan through the Wagah Border.

Background 

India has not recognized the Taliban government in Afghanistan and has been initiating talks on restoring peace in the nation and providing all neccesary aid to its citizens.

India had recently hosted an NSA-level meeting on Afghanistan last month and had also taken part in the Moscow dailogue on Afghanistan before that.