Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday blasted the moribund UN Security Council and other international institutions using technology metaphors to underscore their growing irrelevance in the 21st century and demanded their reform to give the Global South its due.
He said the “21st-century software can’t run on a 20th-century typewriter”, in pithy comparison to those institutions’ inefficacy. Another zinger from him was that "Without the Global South, global institutions are like a mobile phone that may have a SIM but no network".
In his address at the inaugural session of the BRICS summit here, PM Modi said: "The expansion of BRICS clearly shows that BRICS is an organisation capable of changing itself with the times. Now, we need to show the same resolve for reforms in institutions like the UN Security Council, WTO [World Trade Organisation], and multilateral development banks."
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who inaugurated the summit, also demanded reform of the Security Council and the international financial and development institutions to give the Global South its voice. The other international institutions for reform include the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
The WTO sets the rules for international commerce, heavily weighted against most countries of the Global South. In the absence of adequate representation, PM Modi said that the Global South has often been a victim of double standards, and its interests haven’t been given priority.On urgent issues facing the world, like climate finance, sustainable development and technology access, the Global South has received only token gestures.
For this, PM Modi blamed the institutions established in the 20th century that have not provided adequate voice to two-thirds of humanity and have deprived nations making significant contributions to the world economy from a seat on key decision-making bodies.He likened them to mobile phones without SIM cards, the heart of connectivity, making them useless.
With another technology metaphor, he said: "In this era of AI, where technology updates on a weekly basis, it is unacceptable that global institutions haven’t undergone an update even once in eighty years".And, "21st-century software can’t run on a 20th-century typewriter", he added.
Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Indonesia joined BRICS and PM Modi viewed this as a sign of the Global South's clarion call for its legitimate representation in the international institutions. Like host Brazil, India is one of the aspirants for a permanent seat on a reformed Security Council.