EAM Jaishankar attends G7 foreign ministers’ meet in France

EXternal affairs government minister S Jaishankar travelled to anatole france on th to take part in a G7 strange ministers’ meeting focused on pressing global challenges such as the West Asia conflict, the situation in Ukraine, and the reform of UN peacekeeping missions.India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Ukraine are the partner countries invited to the meeting at Abbaye des-Vaux-de-Cernay by France, the host nation. Jaishankar will also hold bilateral meetings with several counterparts during the visit, the external affairs ministry said on Thursday.Jaishankar said on social media that he held his first bilateral meeting after arriving in Abbaye des-Vaux-de-Cernay with his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot. This is Jaishankar’s second visit to Europe since Israel and the US’s military strikes on Iran on February 28 triggered a regional conflict that has impacted energy supply chains and maritime trade. Jaishankar recently visited Brussels to attend a meeting of European Union foreign ministers.The G7 foreign ministers’ meeting is part of preparations for the G7 Summit to be held in the French city of Evian from June 15 to 17, and a French diplomat said the gathering has an “ambitious and open” agenda aimed at producing concrete results related to global challenges.“One of the main priorities will be to coordinate our positions, our initiatives on security and peace, and particularly in the Middle East and in Ukraine,” the French diplomat said.“There will be more innovative approaches to integrate horizontal threats endangering the sovereignty of different states. So we will try to answer the crisis of multilateralism, to rethink the architecture of world governance.”One of the sessions at the meeting will focus specifically on Iran, including exploring different channels of negotiations that can lead to de-escalation in the region, and the reopening of maritime routes and exercise of freedom of navigation, the French diplomat said. The meeting will also discuss ways to tackle Iran’s nuclear and ballistic programmes, he said.The meeting will also focus on tackling threats such as narcotics trafficking and maritime security, the French diplomat said.One of the sessions at the meeting will focus on reconstruction and “broader economic integration” in the Middle East to meet the “tremendous needs” in terms of economic reconstruction in the region, the French diplomat said. “A part of it will be how to channel the funds to where they are needed,” he said.As part of the focus on reform of global governance, the G7 foreign ministers and their counterparts from India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Ukraine will discuss the revamp of peacekeeping missions, including making them more efficient and able to cope with budget constraints.The French presidency of the G7 is expected to push for the creation of a coordination committee, including large contributors to peacekeeping missions, that will examine a report by the UN Secretary-General and propose concrete measures for improving these missions.