india

Updated: Jul 31, 2019 21:28 IST

India and the UK will jointly launch a new Global Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, first mooted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the margins of the UN General Assembly in September, British envoy Dominic Asquith said on Wednesday.

The coalition will be a loose collective of countries which have capacity in handling post-disaster infrastructure development, and India has sounded out key players such as Japan to back the initiative. The initiative doesn’t seek to compete with UN organisations involved in relief but will complement their efforts.

“We are strong supporters of Prime Minister Modi’s proposal for a global coalition and we will co-launch that coalition at the UN General Assembly in September,” Asquith told reporters.

As part of the UN Secretary General’s upcoming climate summit in September, the UK is leading an initiative on resilience in climate change while India will head an initiative on the industry’s role in tackling climate change, he said.

Governments and industry will have to build infrastructure that is “resilient and respectful of the challenges we face in terms of climate change” and the coalition will work to create frameworks for standards and incentives, he added.

Modi had raised the coalition during a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the margins of the G20 Summit in Osaka on June 27 and sought Tokyo’s backing for the initiative. Japan is well placed to offer its support because of its experience in post-disaster rehabilitation, capacity building abilities and financial abilities, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale had said.