External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has told the G20 that the politicisation of energy flows is doing serious harm to the world economy, and that developing countries are paying the heaviest price for disruptions they did not cause.
Speaking after the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Atlanta, he argued that energy markets must be kept open, stable and free from political manipulation, and that the world needs far more diversified supply chains if it is to withstand the shocks of the coming years.
Jaishankar delivered India's message across three plenary sessions at the meeting, which was hosted by the United States. The sessions covered geopolitical challenges, energy and food security, and resilient supply chains, and the minister described the discussions as engaging, open and constructive. He spoke to the news agency ANI on the sidelines of the meeting, setting out what India had pressed for and why it matters to countries across the developing world.
At the heart of his intervention was a warning about energy. Jaishankar said that deliberate disruptions to fuel distribution, attacks on energy infrastructure, transit chokepoints and sanctions were distorting global markets. He described such interference as a calculated strategy that holds energy prices hostage, and said the consequences fall hardest on poorer countries that can least afford sudden spikes in the cost of fuel and food.
"This distortion of the energy markets, the politicisation of energy flows, this is something which is very harmful," he said, adding that "the Global South was bearing the brunt of the energy shortages and that something needs to be done."
The minister's argument went beyond a complaint about prices. He said the world is facing an energy crisis driven not so much by a shortage of production as by unpredictability, disruption, high costs and unequal access. When supply routes are blocked, when infrastructure is attacked, or when rules are applied selectively, the result is the same: markets become volatile, planning becomes impossible, and developing economies are forced to absorb costs they cannot control.
He also questioned what he called selective carveouts in global energy policy, pointing to distinctions drawn between oil and gas that, in his view, reflected political convenience rather than a consistent approach to energy security.
Jaishankar linked the energy question directly to food security. Disruptions to grain supplies, including those affecting Black Sea shipments, were raised in the discussions as another example of how conflict and political interference ripple through markets that ordinary people depend on. When energy becomes expensive, transport and fertiliser become expensive too, and food prices follow.
For countries already struggling with inflation and debt, that chain reaction can quickly turn into a crisis of livelihoods, not just a diplomatic talking point.
On conflicts themselves, Jaishankar was blunt: there are no military solutions, and only a diplomatic pathway can resolve them. That message, delivered at a gathering of the world's largest economies, framed India's broader approach to a world marked by overlapping wars and rivalries.
Rather than taking sides in a contest of power blocs, India used the meeting to argue that the rules of the global economy should not themselves become weapons, and that every country has a stake in keeping trade, energy and food moving.
The concluding session of the meeting turned to supply chains, and here Jaishankar set out India's prescription in detail. "Today we need more diversified supply chains," he said, calling for more diversified production and more diversified manufacturing across countries. Concentration, he argued, is itself a vulnerability: when production, resources or finance are concentrated in a few geographies, the entire system becomes fragile, and that fragility can be exploited.
"Diversification and de-risking, including in connectivity, is the key to supply chain resilience, threatened by pandemics, conflicts, climate events and mishaps," he said. The point was illustrated by recent history. A pandemic shut factories and ports; conflicts closed shipping lanes; extreme weather disrupted harvests and transport.
Each shock exposed the same weakness: supply chains built for efficiency alone, with no slack and no alternatives, break when they are needed most. Building resilience, Jaishankar argued, means spreading production, building alternative routes, and refusing to let any single chokepoint hold the world economy hostage.
He also called on the G20 to resist what he termed predatory practices and to defend the right of developing countries to industrialise. "The right to industrialise must be promoted; predatory practices and targeting competition should be firmly resisted," he said.
In his framing, industrialisation is not a privilege to be granted by richer countries but a legitimate aspiration of every nation, and rules that punish countries for building their own manufacturing capacity undermine the very idea of shared prosperity.
That argument connected to a broader call for what Jaishankar called the de-politicisation of markets. "De-concentration of the global economy and optimisation of production across geographies can discourage the weaponisation of finance, resources, production and market share," he said.
"The G20 should work towards de-politicisation of markets," he added, urging member countries to reconcile their national interests for the collective good by promoting transparent and multiple supply chains, "making the global economy truly multi-stakeholder."
The host of the meeting, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio, also stressed the need to secure critical trade routes, including the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb, and to strengthen supply chains for critical minerals. That emphasis overlapped with India's message: the narrow waterways through which much of the world's oil and trade passes are strategic pressure points, and their security is a shared interest rather than the concern of any one country.
On the sidelines of the meeting, Jaishankar also met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The two discussed the Ukraine conflict, the situation in the Gulf and multilateral issues, a reminder that the G20 gathering is also a venue for bilateral diplomacy between countries whose relations are otherwise strained. India has consistently maintained channels with all major powers, and the Atlanta meeting provided another occasion for that balancing act.
For India itself, the message carries direct domestic weight. As one of the world's largest energy importers, India is exposed to every disruption in global oil and gas markets, and its economy, its farmers and its households feel the impact of price swings quickly. Diversified supply chains and stable energy markets are therefore not abstract goals for New Delhi but practical necessities, tied to growth, inflation and energy security at home.
The Atlanta meeting also showed how India now positions itself within the G20: not merely as a participant in a rich-country club, but as a voice for the Global South, arguing that the rules of trade and energy must work for countries that did not write them. Whether that argument translates into concrete action will depend on what the grouping does next, but the message from Atlanta was clear.
Energy must not be used as a weapon, markets must not be bent to political ends, and resilience must be built before the next shock arrives, not after it.
(Reporting based on The Times of India and The Financial Express.)