Your valued support will be source of strength: PM Modi tells Biden on G20 Presidency

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden

New Delhi, Dec 05: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has thanked US President Joe Biden for his good wishes to India on assuming the G20 presidency. "Thank you @POTUS (President of US). Your valued support will be a source of strength for India's G-20 Presidency. It is important we all work together to build a better planet," PM Modi wrote in a tweet to Biden.

The PM's message was in response to Biden's remarks on his micro-blogging site which said, "India is a strong partner of the United States, and I look forward to supporting my friend Prime Minister Modi during India's G20 presidency."

"Together we will advance sustainable and inclusive growth while tackling shared challenges like the climate, energy, and food crises," Biden also wrote.

December 1 was a historic day when Indian formally assumed the G20 Presidency from Indonesia.

The G20 is an inter-governmental forum of the world's 20 major developed and developing nations. It is the premier forum for international economic cooperation. In a blog article, the PM had said that India looks forward to a Presidency of healing, harmony and hope.

However, as India assumes this important mantle, I ask myself - can the G20 go further still? Can we catalyse a fundamental mindset shift, to benefit humanity as a whole? I believe we can, the PM had written.

Our mindsets are shaped by our circumstances. Through all of history, humanity lived in scarcity. We fought for limited resources, because our survival depended on denying them to others. Confrontation and competition - between ideas, ideologies and identities - became the norm.

Unfortunately, we remain trapped in the same zero-sum mindset even today. We see it when countries fight over territory or resources. We see it when supplies of essential goods are weaponised. We see it when vaccines are hoarded by a few, even as billions remain vulnerable.

Some may argue that confrontation and greed are just human nature. I disagree. If humans were inherently selfish, what would explain the lasting appeal of so many spiritual traditions that advocate the fundamental one-ness of us all?

One such tradition, popular in India, sees all living beings, and even inanimate things, as composed of the same five basic elements - the panch tatva of earth, water, fire, air and space. Harmony among these elements - within us and between us - is essential for our physical, social and environmental well-being.