India's permanent contribution to world community’s agenda is of enormous importance to us: Antonio Guterres

Antonio Guterres emphasizes India's vital role in the UN, highlighting its contributions to peacekeeping and global development.

India's permanent contribution to the agenda of the international community and that of the United Nations (U.N.) is of “enormous importance for us”, the U.N. chief Antonio Guterres has said, as he pointed to a “positive mega trend” of the increasingly enhanced roles of developing economies such as India in the world.

These remarks were made by Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who will be heading to New Delhi to attend the India AI Impact Summit, the first-ever summit on Artificial Intelligence hosted in the Global South.

India AI Summit 2026 Day 2 LIVE updates: Summit aims to capture use of AI for public interest, PM Modi says

“India became an extremely important leader in the discussions on all aspects of the activities of the U.N., in peace and security, sustainable development, where I remember the G20 presided by India, the very important decisions that were taken there,” Mr. Guterres told PTI in an exclusive interview here.

"And also in human rights as a democratic country in a world where, unfortunately, we see democracy in trouble in so many parts of the world," Mr. Guterres said.

To a question on India’s role at the U.N., Mr. Guterres said "first of all, we have a huge debt of gratitude to India” for its presence in U.N. Peacekeeping, noting that currently about 5,000 Indian women and men are deployed in peacekeeping missions across the world.