G20 Summit to begin on Saturday amid worries over pandemic aftermath, Ukraine war

Global leaders ranging from US President Joe Biden, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reached New Delhi on Friday to participate in the G20 Summit beginning Saturday. But divisions remain within the influential grouping over the Russia-Ukraine war and China’s over-reaching ambitions in the Indo-Pacific and the South China Sea.

As he welcomed the world leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “It is my firm belief that the New Delhi G20 Summit will chart a new path in human-centric and inclusive development.”

On Friday evening, the Prime Minister held bilateral meetings with Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina before hosting a dinner for US President Biden.

With India looking at a bigger role for the developing world at the G20 table, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “We started our Presidency… with a meeting of the voice of the Global South. We got the perspective of 125 leaders and then we remained focused on the perspective of the Global South and the requirements of the developing countries.”

“I can assure you that our presidency has been inclusive, decisive and action-oriented. Our New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration is almost ready. I would not like to delve into it because the declaration will be recommended to the leaders and the leaders will then accept it, and only after it has been accepted by the leaders, we will be able to talk about the actual achievements of this declaration,” G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said earlier in the day.

He said Prime Minister Modi’s vision of India’s G20 Presidency is an “inclusive Presidency”.

“There has been a huge scale and reach of India’s Presidency. There have been 19 G20 countries and the EU… 29 special invited countries, there have been three regional organisations, there have been 11 international organisations, who have participated in all the 220 meetings that took place in India,” he said.

The G20 Sherpa said India assumed the G20 Presidency in the midst of a scenario of slowing growth and productivity worldwide.

“There was a huge impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which had led to vast segments of the global population going below the poverty line. Vast number of people lost their jobs… There has been a reversal on the sustainable development goals. There was a challenge of climate crisis and climate action. At that point, India felt that we should start our Presidency with the theme of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam i.e. the world is one family,” he said.

On Saturday, President Droupadi Murmu will host a dinner for the G20 leaders. There is also a visit to Rajghat to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi and a programme for the spouses on the agenda.