India and China vie for Global South leadership at UN gatherings
China's President Xi Jinping speaks remotely during the "Climate Summit 2025" on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York City on September 24, 2025. AFP-Yonhap
India and China, recently seen moving towards rapprochement after years of strained ties, held separate meetings with Global South countries on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York this week, highlighting a quiet rivalry for leadership of the developing world.
The world's two most-populous countries had been expected to present a united front as global trade and multilateralism face increasing headwinds under U.S. President Donald Trump's second term. Instead, their parallel diplomacy shows a persistent competition for influence.
Chinese Premier Li Qiang, who chaired Beijing's Global Development Initiative event at the UNGA on Tuesday, urged all countries to work together and called on the developed world to pay greater attention to the needs of developing nations.
He also announced that China would no longer claim the special treatment reserved for developing countries in World Trade Organization negotiations, opening the door for the kind of reforms that Trump and other U.S. leaders have been demanding.
By contrast, India, in what it described as a high-level gathering of "like-minded" Global South countries, emphasised south-south trade and tech cooperation, advocating for diversified supply chains to avoid dependence on any single supplier or market.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general of the World Trade Organization, seen at an event last week, praised China's decision to no longer seek special treatment for developing nations. EPA-Yonhap
New Delhi also continued to position itself as a democratic alternative to China, noting that even multilateralism had presented "a very disappointing prospect" for addressing the challenges of the developing world.
"As a responsible major developing country, China will not seek new special and differential treatment in current and future World Trade Organization negotiations," Qiang said at the event, which saw U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director general of the World Trade Organization, in attendance.
Leaders of countries including Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria and Angola, as well as ministerial-level officials from more than 30 countries, were also present.
Claiming developing nation status gives countries extra benefits at the WTO, such as more time to implement agreements.
The issue of special treatment to China has been raised by the U.S. repeatedly and became a barrier to the two nations agreeing on reforming the global trade forum, with Trump in 2019 saying that "the United States has never accepted China's claim to developing-country status".
Okonjo-Iweala posted on social media, calling Beijing's decision "a culmination of many years of hard work and I want to applaud China's leadership on this issue".
Qiang, in his speech, urged developed countries "to fulfil their obligations, give more consideration to the needs of developing countries and actively address unbalanced and inadequate development."
He said that with unilateralism and protectionism are on the rise, "we must remain committed to development, dedicate all our efforts to it and work together to make the pie bigger".
Qiang announced that over the next five years, under the Global Development Initiative first proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2021, China will carry out 2,000 more small-scale livelihood projects in developing countries and work with partner nations and the World Health Organization on additional health projects.
China will also keep funding the WTO's "China Program" to help the world's least developed countries join the global trading system.
Headed by its top diplomat, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, India's event brought together representatives from some 20 countries, including Cuba, the Maldives, Nigeria, Indonesia, Singapore and Jamaica.
He highlighted the challenges facing the Global South, including conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, extreme climate events and volatility in trade.
Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar meets with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. AP-Yonhap
The Indian foreign minister called for "fair and transparent economic practices that democratise production and enhance economic security", adding that a "stable" environment for "balanced and sustainable economic interactions" includes "more South-South trade, investment and technology collaborations".
Jaishankar also emphasised the importance of "resilient, reliable and shorter supply chains that would reduce dependence on any single supplier or any single market" as one of the broad principles in a united approach towards world affairs.
His remarks signalled that there has been no change in how India views the perceived China threat, particularly regarding Beijing's role as a manufacturing hub and its giant leaps in technological development.
India was among the first countries to ban the social media app TikTok, which remains active in the U.S., and has also blocked Chinese investment in certain strategic sectors.
The two nations share a long-standing Himalayan border dispute, which erupted in a deadly clash in 2021 that left at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead.
In recent weeks, however, as both faced hefty U.S. tariffs under Trump, the countries appeared to edge closer diplomatically.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited New Delhi, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was seen engaging in a candid conversation with Xi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin in August. However, New Delhi continues to show aversion to China-led global and regional initiatives.
The two neighbours are also members of the Brics bloc, a group of 10 Global South economies including Iran, Russia, South Africa, Brazil, Ethiopia and Egypt, among others.
India and China have not shared a unified vision within Brics, with tensions emerging over the bloc's planned expansion in 2024.
India is also a member of the Quad security dialogue with the U.S., Australia and Japan, aimed at countering China's influence in the Indo-Pacific.
Recently, Trump's nominee for U.S. envoy to India, Sergio Gor, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that New Delhi has been on "our side on various issues within" Brics.
"Brazil, China have pushed for years to move away from the U.S. dollar. India has been the stopgap for that," he noted.
Read the article at SCMP.