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Transcript of Press Briefing by the Presidency on the Virtual G20 Leaders' Summit (November 21, 2023)

India - Ministry of External Affairs

November 21, 2023

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Very good afternoon to all of you. Thank you for joining us for the special media briefing on the occasion of the G20 Virtual Summit that is being hosted by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi tomorrow, as the chair of the G20. To give us a sense of how we approach this very important event, we have the privilege of having with us here Shri Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa; also joining us on the dais, Shri Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary and Shri Ajay Seth, Secretary (DEA). Sir, may I request Sherpa Sir to say opening remarks and then perhaps we will take a few questions.

Shri Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa: Let me welcome you all to this pre-Summit press conference, which is being held ahead of the G20 Leaders' Summit. Now, the Leaders' Summit will be held tomorrow from 5:30 PM onwards under the chairmanship of the Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. All of you are aware that the 18th G20 Leaders' Summit was held in New Delhi successfully on 9th and 10th September, 2023. It saw the unanimous adoption of the G20 New Delhi Leaders' Declaration. The New Delhi Leaders' Declaration demonstrated the commitment of the G20 leaders to address global challenges in a very ambitious, inclusive, decisive and action-oriented manner. We had 83 paras in our declaration. There were 87 outcomes and 118 documents were attached to it. That means there were almost...with outcomes and documents, we had 205 Actions on which we had to pursue action. At the closing session of the Leaders' Summit, Prime Minister had suggested to the G20 leaders that the leaders would reconvene virtually towards the end of India's G20 presidency period to take forward the guidance provided by the participating leaders in their interventions and also give an impetus to implementing the Summit's outcome. The Prime Minister has been particularly focused on implementation of the Leaders' Declaration and all our Ministries...we've held several rounds of meetings with our Ministries to pursue action on all the Leaders' Declaration and on a vast range of areas, Declaration has been taken both domestically and internationally.

This Virtual Summit will be the second time the Prime Minister will be hosting the leaders of the G20 within a span of just over two and a half months. This is something very rare and rather exceptional. No other presidency has had a physical meeting of all the leaders and then a virtual meeting. In addition to all this, as you all are aware, the Prime Minister has hosted two sessions of the Voice of Global South Summit this year which was co-ordinated by the Foreign Secretary. So, actually, India has held four such meetings in a single year with the participation of over 150 world leaders which clearly demonstrates the convening power of India and the leadership of the Prime Minister at the global level. The Virtual Summit of the G20, being held tomorrow, will also be a major gathering of world leaders since the conclusion of the 78th Session of the UN General Assembly High Level Week and the SDG Summit.

Throughout the G20 presidency, India has worked to ensure that the concerns of Global South receive due cognizance. We've also seen the inclusion of African Union as a permanent member of G20. Since our successful hosting of the G20 Leaders' Summit on 9th and 10th September and the unanimous adoption of the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration, the world has actually witnessed a succession of events and several new challenges have emerged. While development will be the core agenda and we'll focus on the development issue, the Leaders may discuss many other issues and the Virtual Summit will provide an opportunity not only to discuss the implementation of the Leaders' Declaration, but also for the leaders to share views and enhance cooperation on critical challenges that we confront and address gaps in global governance, reaffirm our existing commitment towards the Sustainable Development Goals and move towards a reinvigorated multilateral system that is better positioned to positively impact people's life.

I would merely like to say that after our Summit, we had the meeting of the Finance Track, on which Secretary (DEA) will speak on, in Morocco and we had the Volume-II submission of the Independent Expert Group. But the progress has been made on a number of other issues on the substantive side. We've achieved very substantive outcomes and I would merely point to just a few things on which progress has been made. Firstly, on the G20 consensus on tripling of renewable energy capacity globally by 2030 and doubling the global rate of energy efficiency improvement by 2030. These are expected to be the key outcomes of COP28. So what has happened is that many of the SDG Action Plan led to further discussion on Sustainable Development Goals at the United Nations and at the UN SDG Summit that was taken forward. What we decided on Green Development Pact here will drive the outcomes of the COP28 and we have seen...the first (inaudible) committee of the Green Hydrogen Innovation Centre would be held during COP28. As a result of India's advocacy, Global Initiative on Digital Health has been able to garner commitment for contribution of US$44.5 million and based on G20 Artificial Intelligence Principles, UNESCO Ethical AI Guidelines and India's Responsible AI for All Principles; work on creation of framework has been initiated by MeitY. As you are aware, for the first time Artificial Intelligence in G20 was discussed at the Leaders' level in New Delhi.

On financing issues Mr Ajay Seth will talk about but I would merely say that the Action Plan on SDG is being taken forward and the 2030 G20 New Delhi update on SDG was finalised on 13th November. It is a comprehensive report on the progress made by G20 with respect to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. The principles on Lifestyle for Sustainable Development are being socialised both at COP28 and also among the youth by International Energy Authority. There is a lot of further action, I don't want to get into too much details. I would merely say that we have excellent attendance at the Virtual Summit. We have leaders from almost all countries participating and the guest countries will also be participating and the international organisations. So between the physical meeting held on 9th and 10th September and the Virtual Summit we will have almost all the leaders of the world who would be participating and I would merely say that we look forward to very detailed deliberations by the leaders tomorrow. With these few words, I will hand over the mic to Mr. Ajay Seth, Secretary (DEA).

Shri Ajay Seth, Secretary (DEA): Thank you Sir. A very good afternoon to all of you and let me share the context primarily from the perspective of the financing. As you recall that from the very beginning of the year 2023, the agenda proposed by India found a very positive support from all the member countries. First the Ministers in February meeting in Bengaluru supported it, thereafter the second meeting in Washington, a very significant amount of several areas where the support came in, including the starting of the work on evolution of the World Bank Group. Then the July meeting, the third meeting of Finance Ministers and Governors in Gandhinagar, on several key issues agreements were reached. Thereafter when Leaders met in New Delhi in September, the contribution of various working groups; not just in Finance Track but several working groups under the Sherpa Track; a kind of a momentum which was created led to endorsement and a support much much beyond what the different working groups were in a position to arrive at. As a result the agreements reached, the endorsement obtained were much more, significantly more, than the sum total of the parts. That's a kind of a momentum which got created. And in the Finance Track if I can mention, just one particular aspect, if you recall that in the July meeting of Finance Ministers and Governors, there were still few things which were in the making. For example the work on MDBs, the work of the Independent Expert Group, the work on synthesis paper on Crypto Assets. Leaders took all that into account and the kind of a momentum which was coming, the support which was coming from other groups led to very significantly larger scope of endorsement which the leaders had provided. At the same time they assigned and they expected some more work to be done by the Ministers and Governors when they were expected to meet at Marrakesh, roughly about a month after their (inaudible); and that meeting if you recall in Marrakesh, the Ministers and Governors built upon that momentum and the guidance which the Leaders had provided, and there the report of the Independent Expert Group was welcomed, how to take that forward was agreed upon, similar manner in other areas the agenda which was there, the momentum was provided. Since then between October post-Marrakesh and in the past four to five weeks, several of you were with us when the webinars were done in Sushma Swaraj Bhawan, there to deliberate upon the guidance which the Leaders had provided, how to take that forward within our own country as well as in other international fora and including in the G20 fora and that found support not just within the country but also the international speakers who had participated in those webinars. Now tomorrow, we expect that when the Leaders will be meeting again, again build upon that momentum and get further guidance so that when India hands over the presidency, it will be a strong momentum to the agenda which has been hugely influenced by the perspective of the developing countries and to take that forward. I will stop here. Thank you.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Thank you very much Sir. We are going to open the floor for questions. Please introduce yourself and the organization that you represent and we will probably take a few questions together.

Siddharth: Good evening everybody. I am Siddharth from Bloomberg. My question is to Mr. Kant. Will Mr. Putin and Joe Biden be attending tomorrow's sessions?

Sidhant: Sir Sidhant from WION. To Sherpa Sir. Sir, how does India plans to strengthen the presidency of Brazil who will be the next President. And to the Foreign Secretary Sir. Sir, the presence of the Chinese side, the representation, did we send the invite for the person who has been deputed or for the President Xi Jinping?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: How do you know who has been deputed?

Sidhant: The Chinese side has announced.

Abhishek: Sir Abhishek from CNN News 18. Sir my question is regarding this latest West Asia crisis, that Israel and Hamas war. So will that also be in the agenda when the Leaders will be having conversations?

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: The current conflict?

Abhishek: Yeah, the current conflict.

Siddharth: Hi Siddharth from Money Control. Just want to understand; since Mr. Kant, you said this is a rare event, a Virtual Summit. Can we expect some sort of official statement at the end of it or would it just be a sort of taking stock of all the events which have occurred so far during India's presidency. Thanks.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: What do you mean, statement?

Siddharth: Well, a communique or something.

Surbhi: Hello this is Surbhi from Business Today. I just wanted to understand that in the backdrop of the diplomatic issues between India and Canada, would it also have an impact on the G20 talks tomorrow? Thank you.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: In what way? As you know this is a multilateral event. What is your specific query?

Surbhi: No, I just wanted to know that there has been talk about the Five Eyes Alliance and everything. So is there going to be any discussion on that as well?

Yeshi Seli: Yeshi Seli from the New Indian Express. Is the Canadian Prime Minister expected to take part? You said most people are coming.

Shri Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary: I think on the question of participation and there have been a range of queries with regard to the specific participation, from a country, about a particular leader. You know as Sherpa Sir mentioned in his opening remarks, we are expecting a large majority of G20 leaders to be present at the Virtual Summit tomorrow and I think after the Summit is over, you would see for yourself the participation, its quality, the range of discussions about which you would all be briefed after the tomorrow's Summit. I think it is better that the specifics of the extent of participation, the ecosystem of discussions, the agenda which were put forth in the discussion as shared with you, once that is over. But suffice to say at this stage that we expect large majority of leaders to participate in the discussions tomorrow as has been the case even in the Summit in September this year, where you saw a very high quality participation from the world leaders at the physical Summit. We don't expect tomorrow's Summit to be any different in so far as that is concerned.

With regard to the conflict, whether the conflict will come up for discussions or not tomorrow, again I don't think it would be correct for us to really prejudge what issues would be raised by the Leaders at the Virtual Summit tomorrow. But I think it is important to mention that, and you would all know this, that G20 has focused centrally on the developmental priorities and to the extent the development space, space relating to development financing, other aspects of development and economic growth are impacted by developments elsewhere in the world; they do tend to come up for discussions but the nature of those discussions essentially varies from how each leader would look at it. But again, as I said, it is not our space to prejudge what each leader would say at the discussions tomorrow. I think on the communique part, Sir (inaudible).

Shri Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa: So let me just say to what Foreign Secretary just said that there will be excellent participation and I think we should... tomorrow again, Finance Minister, EAM will be briefing all of you, so I think we should wait on what the Leaders say. What the Leaders say, we can't prejudge at this stage. So we should await that and then tell you how it will shape up and we will be interacting with all of you after the Summit is over. So we will keep you fully informed after that. But I can assure you that as the Foreign Secretary said, there will be excellent participation.

Shri Vinay Kwatra, Foreign Secretary: There was a question relating to contribution with the Brazilian presidency going forward. As is in the G20 tradition, I think the current presidency of the G20 stays in very regular and intense touch with the succeeding presidency, both in terms of working closely with the incoming presidency, in shaping out as to what the priorities of the G20 during their presidency would be. And as you know, there is a Troika system, which is a very active tradition-based system which works in the G20. It's very productive. It gives at one level a very strong element of continuity, not just of agenda items, but even of the conceptualization process, the thought process that goes behind in structuring; for example, our presidency and we'll be sharing it with the Brazilian presidency. Of course, it is for the Brazilian presidency to work out the specifics of their presidency, but we are already in very close touch with them, and I think that process would continue through and through under the framework of Troika, and any other bilateral consultative mechanism that might be there between India and Brazil.

Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Sorry, I think we'll close here. Thank you very much for all for joining and see you tomorrow, 5:30 in the afternoon. This is a closed meeting, but we'll try to bring you, parts of Prime Minister's opening remarks. See you tomorrow. Thank you all, to the members on the dais for joining us. Good evening. Thank you.