As the two-day G20 summit is set to commence on Saturday in the decked up national Capital, India is welcoming the world with heads of states and delegations arriving on Friday. They were given rousing welcome with traditional dance and cultural performances at the airport.
India holds the presidency of the G20 for this year and is hosting the mega event in that capacity. More than 41 heads of states and delegations will congregate here for two days to dwell on various issues. The main theme of India’s presidency of the G20 is “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam — One Earth, One Family, One Future”.
US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other leaders of the G20 grouping as well as chiefs of many leading world bodies like the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) have arrived for the summit.
The G20 member countries represent around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade and about two-thirds of the world population. The grouping comprises Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, the US and the European Union (EU).
Given the magnitude of the high-profile event, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold more than 15 bilateral meetings with world leaders in three days starting Friday.
Setting the tone for the summit, Prime Minister Modi on Friday expressed confidence that it will chart a new path in the human-centric and inclusive development.
Invoking Mahatma Gandhi, Modi said on ‘X’ it is important to emulate his mission of serving the underprivileged, the very last person in the queue, as he underlined India’s great emphasis on a human-centric way of furthering progress.
“We seek to accelerate progress of SDGs, Green Development Pact for a Sustainable Future and strengthen Multilateral Institutions for the 21st Century. We attach immense priority to futuristic sectors such as technological transformation and digital public infrastructure. We will also collectively work to further gender equality, women empowerment and ensure world peace,” he said.
Rooted in our cultural ethos, India’s G20 presidency theme “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam — One Earth, One Family, One Future”, deeply resonates with our world view that the whole world is one family, said Modi.
“India’s G20 presidency has been inclusive, ambitious, decisive, and action-oriented. We actively voiced the developmental concerns of the Global South,” Modi added.
Noting that it is the first-ever G20 summit being hosted by India, he said India is delighted to host the 18th summit on the weekend at the iconic Bharat Mandapam.
“It is my firm belief that the New Delhi G20 Summit will chart a new path in the human-centric and inclusive development,” he said.
Modi said he will be chairing sessions on “One Earth”, “One Family” and “One Future”, covering a range of issues of prime concern to the world community. These include furthering strong, sustainable, inclusive and balanced growth, he added.
The PM noted that he will also be holding bilateral meetings with several leaders and heads of delegations to further deepen bonds of friendship and cooperation.
“I am confident that our guests will enjoy the warmth of the Indian hospitality,” he said, adding that President Droupadi Murmu will be hosting a dinner on Saturday.
“On the 10th (September), the leaders will pay homage to Gandhi Ji at Rajghat. At the closing ceremony, on the same day, G20 leaders will share their collective vision for a sustainable and equitable ‘One Future’, together like ‘One Family’, for a healthier ‘One Earth’,” Modi said.
Meanwhile, India on Friday said the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration was “almost ready” and the negotiators were moving towards a consensus.
Refraining from getting into the specifics of sticking points such as the Russia-Ukraine war and climate-related issues, India’s top G20 officials told a pre-summit press conference here that they were hopeful of clinching a joint communique by consensus.
“India’s expectation is that all G20 members will move towards a consensus and we are hopeful of a consensus on the communique,” Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra said in response to a question on the Ukraine conflict holding up an agreement on the New Delhi Declaration.
On the inclusion of the African Union in the G20 bloc, Kwatra said he expected that Summit proceedings starting Saturday would take a “suitable decision” on it.
India’s G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant said Prime Minister Modi is a great believer in the Global South and had written to all the leaders on the inclusion of the African Union in the G20. He said there has been a very positive response and formally that will come before the Summit.
India also said its presidency of the G20 has lived up to Modi’s vision of being inclusive, ambitious, action-oriented and very decisive.
Kant said the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration will be the voice of the global south and developing countries.
“These are the four principles on which we have worked. We have lived up to his vision of being inclusive, action-oriented, ambitious and very decisive during our presidency,” Kant said.
“Our New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration is almost ready, I would not like to dwell on it because this declaration will be recommended to the leaders during the Summit and the leaders will then accept it and only after it is accepted by the leaders, we will be able to talk about the actual achievements of this declaration,” he said.
Over 220 G20-related meetings were held in 60 cities across the country, showcasing India’s diversity and federal structure, Kant said.
India is set to make a dash for the goal line at the summit in addressing some of the complex global challenges such as concerns of the Global South, consequences of the Ukraine conflict, gloomy economic scenario, and fostering inclusive growth amid a fragmented geopolitical environment.