Summary
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar co-chaired the first Partners for Multilateralism, International Law, Peace and Prosperity (P4M) Summit on the margins of the 81st UN General Assembly. The co-sponsors were Australia, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, the European Union and Kenya.
He said the global order is under stress. He called for frameworks and guardrails for the 4F crisis of fuel, food, fertiliser and finance, for de-risking against chokepoint dominance and for reformed multilateralism with more participative and transparent decision-making.
The same day, India held its first foreign ministers' meeting with the Visegrad Group, which backed India's claim to a permanent UNSC seat.
WHY IN NEWS FOR UPSC & STATE PCS
On September 21, 2026 (Monday of UNGA high-level week), India co-sponsored and Jaishankar co-chaired the first P4M Summit at UN headquarters. Also that day, India and the V4 (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) held their first foreign ministers' meeting.
They agreed to expand political, economic and defence cooperation and Slovakia's Foreign Minister said India must be at the table as a permanent member. The meetings came days after a US sanctions law authorised tariffs of up to 100% on countries buying Russian oil and gas, India among them.
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India Wants the Door Reformed but Is Building Side Entrances Look at
who was in the room. The P4M co-sponsors were India, Australia, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, the European Union and Kenya. None of them is a permanent member of the Security Council. That absence is the point, not a coincidence.
P4M is a coalition of countries that depend on a working multilateral system but cannot command it. What they are really doing is building capacity around a Council that cannot act, while still demanding that it be reformed.
The interest map Each co-sponsor is protecting something specific.
- India wants two things that pull in different directions: a permanent seat in a reformed UNSC and working solutions now for the 4F crisis and chokepoint risks, since those shocks hit a large importing economy first. The timing makes this sharper. A US law now authorises tariffs of up to 100% on Russian-oil buyers and India is one of them.
- Brazil is India's partner in the long campaign for Council expansion and shares the same frustration.
- Barbados and Kenya speak for small and African states hit hardest by food, fertiliser and debt shocks. Barbados has led the push to reform global finance through the Bridgetown Initiative, so "finance" among the 4Fs is no accident.
- The EU, Canada and Australia are rule-dependent middle powers hedging against an unpredictable great-power order, including tariff unpredictability from their own ally. The V4 meeting on the same day adds a different layer. For India, it is an entry into Central Europe beyond the Paris-Berlin axis and it produced something concrete: explicit backing for a permanent Indian seat. For the V4, India is a diversified partner in trade, technology and defence.
Why coalitions and why now The reason is structural.
Amending the UN Charter to expand the Council requires two-thirds of the General Assembly and ratification by two-thirds of members including all five permanent members (Article 108). The P5 hold a veto over their own reform. With the Council deeply polarised, reform through that channel is effectively frozen.
Coalitions like P4M let "the like-minded come together" on specific problems, as Jaishankar put it: supply-chain guardrails, de-risking and food and fertiliser flows. These are issues where results do not require P5 consent.
Strengthening reform or quietly replacing it?
This is the real test. Minilaterals strengthen reform when they build the voting coalition that reform needs, as the V4's endorsement does and when they show middle powers can govern responsibly. They replace it when they solve enough problems that the pressure to fix the Council fades, which leaves the P5 comfortable and the UN diminished.
Quick Facts
Key numbers & takeaways — revise these first
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The P4M Summit was held for the first time on the margins of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in September 2026.
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Its co-sponsors were India, Australia, Barbados, Brazil, Canada, the European Union and Kenya.
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The 4F crisis refers to fuel, food, fertiliser and finance.
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The Visegrad Group or V4, is made up of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
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The first V4 plus India Foreign Ministers' Meeting was held on the sidelines of UNGA 81.
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The UN Security Council has 15 members.
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The five permanent, veto-holding members are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.
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Jaishankar is scheduled to address the UNGA General Debate on September 26, 2026.
Connect the dots for your UPSC preparation.
Standard news covers the event. Log in to read our comprehensive analysis and uncover the hidden constitutional, structural, and ethical dimensions of this topic:
How the Charter's own amendment rule gives the P5 a veto over their own reform and why that explains the turn to minilaterals.
A full interest map of each P4M co-sponsor and the V4, including what each is protecting behind the joint language.
What is working and what is not in India's two-track strategy, from the V4's UNSC endorsement to the risk that coalitions come to substitute for reform.
A short-term and long-term way forward for turning coalitions into votes in the IGN process instead of lasting workarounds.
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