NEW DELHI: Against the backdrop of the Israel-Hamas conflict, a major gathering of global leaders will take place on Wednesday, bringing together the world’s largest economies and the African Union for a virtual G20 meeting convened by India .
While Russian President Vladimir Putin will appear at the G20 summit for the first time in at least two years, US President Joe Biden will not be present for Thanksgiving and will be represented by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
This will also be the first time that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will face Prime Minister Modi in person, albeit virtually, after the bitter diplomatic standoff between the two countries days after his return to Ottawa from India in September. China will be represented by Prime Minister Li Qiang, President Xi Jinping will again be absent.
While India will push for the development agenda to take center stage, officials did not rule out that the war between Israel and Hamas could be a key topic of discussion.
“Since our successful hosting of the G20 Summit, the world has witnessed a series of events and several new challenges have emerged. While development will be the core agenda and we will focus on the development issue, the leaders can discuss other issues,” India’s Sherpa Amitabh Kant told reporters.
Foreign Minister Vinay Kwatra said it would not be appropriate to prejudge the issues to be discussed by the leaders, while Indian officials listed progress made on several issues since the summit in September.
“The Prime Minister will host G20 leaders within just over two months. This is something very rare and rather unusual. No other presidency has had a physical meeting of all heads of state and government and then a virtual meeting. In addition, the Prime Minister hosted two sessions of the Voice of the Global South. In fact, in a single year, India has held four such meetings attended by over 150 world leaders, which clearly shows the convening power and leadership of the Prime Minister at the global level,” Kant said.
India reached a rare consensus at the G20 summit in September against the backdrop of the war between Russia and Ukraine – an issue that threatened to create a rift between developed and emerging economies.
New Delhi is now working on implementing the issues agreed by the leaders at the summit. Significant progress has been made on several issues, including climate finance, reform of multilateral development banks and work to create an ethical artificial intelligence framework based on UNESCO principles.