Addressing the Nikkei Forum on the India-Japan partnership, India's top diplomat said that countries of the Global South feel for each other on several issues

Jaishankar highlighted that China skipped the two meetings convened by India last year to listen to their (countries from Global South) concerns

"On a lot of issues, these countries feel for each other. The feeling has been intensified by COVID because many countries of the Global South felt that they were the last in the line to get the vaccine. They even felt at the time when India became G20 President that their concerns were not even on the agenda of the G20," Jaishankar said, reported PTI

"So we (India) did last year two meetings of the voice of the Global South because we wanted to listen to these 125 countries and then put before the G20 a set of issues," Jaishankar added

"They don't think it is a coincidence that it was under the Indian presidency that the African Union, which had long been promised a seat in the G20, got a seat. So the Global South believes us," he said, PTI report added

"The two summits which we convened last year to listen to their concerns, I don't believe China was present," Jaishankar said, referring to Chinese President Xi Jinping not attending the G20 summit and deputing Premier Li Qiang instead

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday called on Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and apprised him of the progress made by the two countries in the just-concluded Foreign Ministers Strategic Dialogue

Jaishankar, who is on a visit to Japan from March 6-8 on Thursday co-chaired the 16th India-Japan Foreign Ministers Strategic Dialogue with his Japanese counterpart Yoko Kamikawa and participated in the first Raisina Roundtable, a key step towards enhancing track two exchanges between India and Japan

"Honored to call on Japanese PM @kishida230 as I conclude my visit to Tokyo. Conveyed warm greetings of PM @narendramodi," the minister said on X