Partners for Multilateralism: India Joins the New Effort to Fix the UN Without the Superpower Drama
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is going to be at the first meeting of this new group called Partners for Multilateralism — people are already shortening it to P4M — in New York this week. It lines up with the big UN General Assembly gathering, and basically India is showing up for an attempt to keep multilateralism alive without everything turning into a fight between the big powers.
The group was started by the European Union, Brazil, Kenya and Canada. Their leaders — António Costa from the EU Council, Brazil’s Lula, Kenya’s William Ruto and Canada’s Mark Carney — wrote a joint piece in the Financial Times. They said this isn’t meant to be another closed club or some new heavy organisation. The idea is simple: a flexible, open space where countries from different regions and different political backgrounds can still sit together, form coalitions when it makes sense, and try to push real reforms.
They want it to help make the UN and other multilateral bodies more representative, more legitimate, more effective and more trusted. The things they’re looking at are pretty broad — better links between regional organisations, peace and security, how the global economy is run, and common ways to deal with the new problems like artificial intelligence, climate change, health security and the digital shift. They kept stressing that this is about fixing and strengthening what already exists, not throwing the whole system out. The principles they want to stick to are the basic ones in the UN Charter: sovereign equality, territorial integrity, settling disputes peacefully, no threat or use of force, humanitarian law, sustainable development, human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The timing isn’t random. They pointed out that the world is more connected than ever, yet also more broken up. Last year, 2025, had the highest number of state-based armed conflicts since 1946 — fighting in 35 countries. Military spending hit a record of nearly $2.9 trillion. Against that, they said working together isn’t some soft ideal; it’s just necessary. No country, no matter how powerful, can handle climate risks, pandemics, financial shocks, supply-chain problems or the speed of AI by itself.
They also picked up on what UN Secretary-General António Guterres has been saying — that the superpowers are starting to hit the limits of what they can do, and the rest of the world needs to remember what collective action can still achieve. P4M is being put forward as one answer to that and to the fact that the current institutions often struggle with the crises we keep facing.
Indian officials confirmed Jaishankar will attend. He’s leading the Indian team for the whole UNGA week and is due to give India’s speech on 26 September. The P4M session is at 6.30 p.m. New York time on 21 September — early morning on the 22nd for us here — and there’s expected to be a press conference after. It’s still not clear if India was asked to join the founders’ joint message, but New Delhi turning up shows interest.
India is already in several groups that talk about similar things — the Non-Aligned Movement, BRICS, the G20, the G4 that keeps pushing for a bigger Security Council. For us, sitting in on P4M fits the long argument that multilateralism needs reform if it’s going to stay useful. The institutions have to look more like the world we live in now, give the Global South a proper voice, and be ready for the problems that keep coming.
This group is trying to create space for middle powers and other countries that don’t want to get stuck in the middle of superpower rivalries. Mark Carney had already talked about this at Davos earlier this year — middle powers needing to find ways to work together when the old post-war order feels like it’s cracking. P4M looks like one attempt to turn that talk into something real, bringing in voices from Europe, Latin America, Africa and North America without forcing everyone into the same rigid structure.
Whether this becomes a lasting platform or stays mostly talk will depend on a few things: how many countries actually join, whether the way they work becomes clear and useful, and if it can move any of the reform issues that have been stuck for years. Security Council expansion is the classic example — discussed for decades with almost nothing to show. AI rules, climate finance, pandemic preparedness — all of those need steady work and resources, not just another meeting.
For India, being at the first session is a low-risk way to talk to a wider set of partners without locking into anything new. It lets New Delhi keep saying it supports a rules-based order centred on the UN, while still working through the forums it already has. In a time when great-power competition is loud and institutions feel under strain, yet another diplomatic initiative can feel familiar. What the founders keep saying is that they’re trying to keep the door open, avoid exclusive clubs, and focus on practical coalitions around principles most countries already claim to share.
As the high-level week goes on in New York, the P4M meeting will be one of many side events fighting for attention. Jaishankar’s presence means India’s voice is at least in the room early on. How far this goes after the first meeting, and whether it can actually shift any of the long-stalled reform debates, is still an open question. For now it’s a reminder that a fair number of governments still see value in trying to work together, even when the geopolitical weather is rough.
Sources:
– The Hindu, “‘Partners for Multilateralism’: India to attend new non-superpower grouping’s inaugural session at UN,” 21 September 2026.
– Financial Times, “Multilateralism is not idealism, it is a necessity,” joint article by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, António Costa, William Ruto and Mark Carney, 20 September 2026.
– Extra details from coverage in Bloomberg, The Globe and Mail and other reports on the P4M launch and the UN General Assembly week.
Partners for Multilateralism: India Joins the New Effort to Fix the UN Without the Superpower Drama
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar is going to be at the first meeting of this new group called Partners for Multilateralism — people are already shortening it to P4M — in New York this week. It lines up with the big UN General Assembly gathering, and basically India is showing up for an attempt to keep multilateralism alive without everything turning into a fight between the big powers.
The group was started by the European Union, Brazil, Kenya and Canada. Their leaders — António Costa from the EU Council, Brazil’s Lula, Kenya’s William Ruto and Canada’s Mark Carney — wrote a joint piece in the Financial Times. They said this isn’t meant to be another closed club or some new heavy organisation. The idea is simple: a flexible, open space where countries from different regions and different political backgrounds can still sit together, form coalitions when it makes sense, and try to push real reforms.
They want it to help make the UN and other multilateral bodies more representative, more legitimate, more effective and more trusted. The things they’re looking at are pretty broad — better links between regional organisations, peace and security, how the global economy is run, and common ways to deal with the new problems like artificial intelligence, climate change, health security and the digital shift. They kept stressing that this is about fixing and strengthening what already exists, not throwing the whole system out. The principles they want to stick to are the basic ones in the UN Charter: sovereign equality, territorial integrity, settling disputes peacefully, no threat or use of force, humanitarian law, sustainable development, human rights and fundamental freedoms.
The timing isn’t random. They pointed out that the world is more connected than ever, yet also more broken up. Last year, 2025, had the highest number of state-based armed conflicts since 1946 — fighting in 35 countries. Military spending hit a record of nearly $2.9 trillion. Against that, they said working together isn’t some soft ideal; it’s just necessary. No country, no matter how powerful, can handle climate risks, pandemics, financial shocks, supply-chain problems or the speed of AI by itself.
They also picked up on what UN Secretary-General António Guterres has been saying — that the superpowers are starting to hit the limits of what they can do, and the rest of the world needs to remember what collective action can still achieve. P4M is being put forward as one answer to that and to the fact that the current institutions often struggle with the crises we keep facing.
Indian officials confirmed Jaishankar will attend. He’s leading the Indian team for the whole UNGA week and is due to give India’s speech on 26 September. The P4M session is at 6.30 p.m. New York time on 21 September — early morning on the 22nd for us here — and there’s expected to be a press conference after. It’s still not clear if India was asked to join the founders’ joint message, but New Delhi turning up shows interest.
India is already in several groups that talk about similar things — the Non-Aligned Movement, BRICS, the G20, the G4 that keeps pushing for a bigger Security Council. For us, sitting in on P4M fits the long argument that multilateralism needs reform if it’s going to stay useful. The institutions have to look more like the world we live in now, give the Global South a proper voice, and be ready for the problems that keep coming.
This group is trying to create space for middle powers and other countries that don’t want to get stuck in the middle of superpower rivalries. Mark Carney had already talked about this at Davos earlier this year — middle powers needing to find ways to work together when the old post-war order feels like it’s cracking. P4M looks like one attempt to turn that talk into something real, bringing in voices from Europe, Latin America, Africa and North America without forcing everyone into the same rigid structure.
Whether this becomes a lasting platform or stays mostly talk will depend on a few things: how many countries actually join, whether the way they work becomes clear and useful, and if it can move any of the reform issues that have been stuck for years. Security Council expansion is the classic example — discussed for decades with almost nothing to show. AI rules, climate finance, pandemic preparedness — all of those need steady work and resources, not just another meeting.
For India, being at the first session is a low-risk way to talk to a wider set of partners without locking into anything new. It lets New Delhi keep saying it supports a rules-based order centred on the UN, while still working through the forums it already has. In a time when great-power competition is loud and institutions feel under strain, yet another diplomatic initiative can feel familiar. What the founders keep saying is that they’re trying to keep the door open, avoid exclusive clubs, and focus on practical coalitions around principles most countries already claim to share.
As the high-level week goes on in New York, the P4M meeting will be one of many side events fighting for attention. Jaishankar’s presence means India’s voice is at least in the room early on. How far this goes after the first meeting, and whether it can actually shift any of the long-stalled reform debates, is still an open question. For now it’s a reminder that a fair number of governments still see value in trying to work together, even when the geopolitical weather is rough.
Sources:
– The Hindu, “‘Partners for Multilateralism’: India to attend new non-superpower grouping’s inaugural session at UN,” 21 September 2026.
– Financial Times, “Multilateralism is not idealism, it is a necessity,” joint article by Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, António Costa, William Ruto and Mark Carney, 20 September 2026.
– Extra details from coverage in Bloomberg, The Globe and Mail and other reports on the P4M launch and the UN General Assembly week.
@Rohit Manral
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