Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has enlisted the support of developing countries in the Global South as they struggle with economic challenges ranging from rising oil prices to food and fertilizer shortages, Bloomberg reports.

“As far as India is concerned, your voice is India’s voice. Your priorities are India’s priorities,” Modi said Thursday, at the start of a two-day virtual summit of as many as 120 developing countries. “People of the Global South should no longer be excluded from the fruits of developments.”

India has always advocated a greater role for developing countries in determining our common future. Global growth in the 21st century will come at the expense of the South, he said.

In recent years, India has actively sought closer ties with the United States and its Western allies to counter assertive China economically and militarily. It has often done so at the expense of its engagement with developing countries. Now New Delhi is trying to restore that balance, especially as it also faces the blow of soaring commodity prices, especially after the war in Ukraine.

“India, as a developing country, is more concerned about the rising prices and shortage of fertilizer, fuel and food,” Sushant Singh a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research and guest lecturer at Yale University said. “The G-20 provides a platform to India to raise the voices of these countries, and increase its bargaining power and standing in the grouping.”

The two-day summit will have eight ministerial meetings covering finance, energy, environment, trade and commerce, education and foreign affairs. A separate session will focus on generating ideas for India’s G-20 presidency.

The two-day summit will include eight ministerial meetings on finance, energy, environment, trade and commerce, education and foreign affairs. A separate session will be devoted to generating ideas for India's G-20 presidency.

“Over the last few decades, the South’s declining importance in the West’s priority list has led to the under-representation of Asia, Africa and South America in international forums,” Shibani Mehta, who studies India’s diplomacy at Carnegie India said, adding that these issues will also figure prominently in future G-20 summits in Brazil and South Africa.