Remarks made by India during the briefing organized by South Centre in preparation of the 2nd High-level UN Conference on South-South cooperation – Delivered by Dr. Sadre Alam, First Secretary

(Geneva, Switzerland, 16 May 2018)

Good morning and thank you.

2. At the outset, I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate the new incoming Executive Director of the South Centre Dr. Carlos Correa and welcome him. I thank the panelists from the International Labour Organisation (Ms. Anita Amorim, Head of the Emerging and Special Partnerships Unit) and UNCTAD (Mr. Richard Kozul-Wright, Director, Division on Globalization and Development Strategies) for their useful presentations.

3. No one disagrees that south-south cooperation is good and necessary. It also has immense potential for the common good. However, the origin, underlying philosophy and nature of south-south cooperation is very different from north-south cooperation. It is based on mutual respect and benefit, collective self-reliance, capacity building, equality, non-interference and most importantly, south-south solidarity. South-south cooperation is already happening and will continue. It is voluntary and must not be monitored or monetised.

4. South-South cooperation is complementary to north-south cooperation and fills the gaps left by the latter. Collectively, we need to counter the OECD narrative on development cooperation, in general and south-south cooperation, in particular that aims at substituting north-south cooperation with south-south cooperation and measuring and unduly focusing on it. The South must not let the north decide what the former must do with their finance and technology.

5. Geneva based delegations can enrich the discourse on south-south cooperation through its expertise on a large number of issues related to SDGs like health, labour, migration, trade etc. and this must be fully realised.

6. Lastly, I wish to reiterate that the United Nations Development System needs to focus on north-south developmental cooperation much more than South-South cooperation. Our collective approach within the UN system and beyond must be accordingly calibrated.

Thank you.

16 May 2018