External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar traveled to France on Thursday to participate in the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting focusing on pressing global challenges such as the conflict in West Asia, the situation in Ukraine, and reform of UN peacekeeping missions.
India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Ukraine are the partner countries invited to meet at Abbaie des Vues de Sernay by host country France. Jaishankar will also hold bilateral meetings with several of his counterparts during the visit, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.
Jaishankar said on social media that he held his first bilateral meeting after arriving in Abbaye de Vaud-de-Sernay with his French counterpart Jean-Noel Barrow. This is Jaishankar’s second visit to Europe since the Israeli and US military strikes on Iran on February 28 led to a regional conflict affecting energy supply chains and maritime trade. Jaishankar recently visited Brussels to attend a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
The G7 foreign ministers’ meeting comes within the framework of preparations for the G7 summit, which will be held in the French city of Evian from June 15 to 17, and a French diplomat said that the gathering has an “ambitious and open” agenda aimed at achieving tangible results related to global challenges.
“One of the main priorities will be to coordinate our positions and initiatives on security and peace, especially in the Middle East and Ukraine,” the French diplomat said.
“There will be more innovative ways to integrate horizontal threats to the sovereignty of different countries. So we will try to answer the crisis of multilateralism, and rethink the structure of global governance.”
The French diplomat said that one of the sessions of the meeting will focus specifically on Iran, including exploring various channels for negotiations that could lead to stopping the escalation in the region, reopening sea routes and exercising freedom of navigation. He added that the meeting will also discuss ways to deal with Iran’s nuclear and ballistic programs.
The French diplomat said that the meeting will also focus on addressing threats such as drug trafficking and maritime security.
The French diplomat said that one session of the meeting will focus on reconstruction and “broader economic integration” in the Middle East to meet the “tremendous needs” regarding economic reconstruction in the region. “Part of it will be how we direct the money to where it’s needed,” he said.
Focusing on global governance reform, the G7 foreign ministers and their counterparts from India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Ukraine will discuss revamping peacekeeping missions, including making them more efficient and able to cope with budget constraints.
The French G7 presidency is expected to seek to establish a coordination committee, including major contributors to peacekeeping missions, which will study the report of the UN Secretary-General and propose concrete measures to improve these missions.
