India has cautioned that attempts to "subsume" the South-South cooperation in the international aid architecture are not helpful and do no justice to the future potential of cooperation between developing nations.

South-South cooperation is about developing countries working together to find solutions to common development challenges, according to the UN Office for South-South Cooperation. It describes the exchange of resources, technology and knowledge between developing countries.

India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said: “More and better South-South cooperation now is on account of the global South enjoying more rapid and sustained economic growth. Yet, South-South cooperation retains its distinct nature and values, as well as diversity of forms and flows. It defies easy categorisation.”

The trajectory of global growth and the declining share of ODA (official development assistance) during the past decade or so has seen attempts to subsume South-South cooperation in the global aid architecture, he said at the second high-level UN Conference on South-South cooperation in Buenos Aires.

“Such efforts are not helpful. They do no justice to either its historical heritage or its future potential. Let us not venture to strait-jacket South-South cooperation into a format that it cannot fit into,” he said.

He said over the past decade, India has extended lines of credit of about $25 billion to more than 60 countries of the South.

All projects follow universally recognised norms and do not create unsustainable debt burdens while ensuring skill and technology transfer to help local communities maintain and sustain assets created, the envoy said.

These projects not only cover “traditional” sectors such as infrastructure, agriculture, education, health and rural development, but also new frontiers ranging from the blue economy to the digital economy, he said.

They encompass climate action activities such as through the International Solar Alliance and humanitarian assistance and disaster relief as is being undertaken by the Indian Navy at Port Beira in Mozambique now, he said.

“The South Asian satellite is testimony that the sky is no longer the limit when it comes to India’s efforts at South-South cooperation among like-minded countries,” he said.

He stressed that the cardinal principle of South-South cooperation is that sharing valuable capacities, experience and knowledge amongst developing countries can be a catalyst for development. “It does not substitute or supplant but only supplements North-South cooperation,” he said.

He noted that as opportunities for sharing the fruits of knowledge, technology and growth have changed, nations are now seeking new channels of cooperation, rather than conflict; new pathways for development, rather than destruction.

In recent years, India’s development cooperation with fellow partners from the South has expanded and formats of consolidating partnerships have broadened, including grant assistance, lines of credit, small development projects, technical consultancy, disaster relief, humanitarian assistance, educational scholarships and a range of capacity building programmes.

Under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation programme, about 13,000 training slots are provided annually to nominees from 161 countries. All Least Developed Countries are eligible for preferential market access in India under the Duty Free Tariff Preference Scheme, he said.

Akbaruddin said the India-UN Development Partnership Fund established in June 2017 is a mechanism contributing to the achievement of SDGs of fellow developing countries.

The Indian envoy also participated at a signing ceremony for UNESCO South-South Cooperation projects, funded through the UN-India Development Fund.

“UNESCO has been quick to develop projects. This is South-South cooperation in its essence. The first project with UNESCO is taking off and we hope there will be many more to come,” Akbaruddin said, adding that Gambia expressed appreciation to India for the project, saying in a tweet that “support of India and UNESCO can make a real difference in addressing capacity gaps, saving lives”.