India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday stressed the need for India and Africa to strive to attend together "decentralized globalization" which can enhance capacities and overcome challenges posed by Covid-19.

"The Covid-19 pandemic has brought home the dangers of relying on limited geographies. When supply chains were disrupted and demand outstripped supply, the more vulnerable will inevitably get short changed. Africa cannot afford to see that continue," Jaishankar said while addressing the inauguration of refurbished Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Library at the University of Nairobi. 

"And this goes against the very spirit of South-South cooperation. The direct lesson from the pandemic is the need today, the pressing need I would say, for decentralized globalization," he said.

He said the rise of modern Africa is a "long-awaited expectation".

"It is only when this continent of more than a billion people takes its rightful place that the full diversity of our planet will find proper expression. It is then that we can justifiably declare that the world is truly multipolar," Jaishankar, on a three-day official visit to Kenya for discussions with his counterpart and Kenyan leaders, said.

"Decisions made by the international community will be really global only when Africa’s voice is adequately heard. And that must happen most of all by reform in leading bodies like the UN Security Council where today India and Kenya have seats as Non Permanent members for two years," he said.

"Both, as a solidarity and as a strategy, India stands with Africa. Within our capacities, we have partnered with as much as a large heart as an open mind. Your priorities guide our initiatives," he said.

Jaishankar said: "We have faced the challenges of the world together, we are doing it even today and we see that particularly when it comes to public health. Indeed, another of Prime Minister Modi’s commitments during the memorable visit- to provide anti-TB and anti-HIV drugs- was implemented as effectively as this project has been today. And there is so much more that can be done and must be done, especially in a world that is recovering from the Covid pandemic." (SAM)