On 12 January 2023, H.E. General Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister of Thailand participated in the opening ceremony of the Voice of the Global South Summit upon the invitation of H.E. Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India on the occasion of India’s G20 Presidency 2023. The Summit was held virtually under the theme “Voice of the South: For Human-centric Development”. India invited 10 leading developing countries that play an important role in South-South cooperation and have close bilateral ties with India.

As the world faces the largest cost-of-living crisis in the 21st century, Prime Minister Prayut called for global cooperation to address the inflation, fuel, and fertilizer crises, strengthen pandemic preparedness and response capacity, and enhance connectivity in all dimensions. All this complements Thailand’s national policy priorities, demonstrates Thailand’s leadership as the current Chair of BIMSTEC, and contributes to implementing the Bangkok Goals on BCG Economy adopted by 21 APEC economies last November.

At the Summit, the Prime Minister outlined 3 ideas on how India’s G20 Presidency this year can be fully leveraged to amplify developing nations' voices in global governance and steer the global economy toward a more sustainable and inclusive “human-centric globalization”. This entails (1) exploring a more holistic approach to balanced development that builds on Thailand’s Bio-Circular-Green Economy Model (BCG Economy Model) and India’s Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE); (2) advancing a development paradigm that centers on people’s well-being through transformative financing actions and closer South-South and Triangular Cooperation; and (3) strengthening supply chain resilience through the development of a global mechanism that ensures access to affordable food, fuel, and fertilizer.

India convened the Voice of the Global South Summit to bring together countries of the Global South to share their views on current global challenges and urgently find common solutions to development imperatives, to ensure that India’s G20 Presidency better reflects the underrepresented views of non-G20 developing countries. The outcomes of the said Summit will ultimately feed into processes leading up to the G20 New Delhi Summit, which will take place during 9 -10 September 2023 under the theme “One Earth, One Family, One Health”.

Full statement can be found at >> https://www.mfa.go.th/en/content/pm-vogss-2