Modi says India to host G-20 Summit in 2022
Modi praises JAI (Japan, America, India) trio, meets Putin, Xi
BUENOSAIRES, ARGENTINA: India will host the G-20 Summit in 2022 as it celebrates the 75th year of Independence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced at a gathering of the Group of 20 (G-20) forum on Saturday.
“We had requested Italy if we can get 2022 instead of 2021 (for hosting the summit). They accepted our request, others accepted it too,” Modi was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The PM said he was grateful to the G-20 members. “I invite leadership from across the world to come to India in 2022,” he added
The announcement comes a day after Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the need for reforming and strengthening multilateral institutions, seeking to take the lead in global economic governance, when they met on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in the Argentine capital.
The opening day of the summit on Friday was a day of hectic engagements for Modi who, hours earlier, took part in another powerful trilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
At the summit, India also released a nine-point agenda, including a call for stronger cooperation between countries in efforts to catch fugitive economic offenders.
The call comes against the backdrop of Indian efforts to secure the return of jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, and businessman Vijay Mallya. All of them fled India for overseas before the law caught up with them over unpaid bank loans to the tune of thousands of crore.
The Russia-India-China (RIC) meeting took place after a gap of 12 years, according to Raveesh Kumar, the spokesperson for the external affairs ministry, who said the interaction between the three leaders was “characterised by warmth and positivity”.
“Leaders discussed cooperation and coordination in various areas which could contribute to global peace and stability,” he wrote in a Twitter post.
Modi on Saturday met South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the sidelines of the summit and invited him to be the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations next year. The South African leader accepted the invitation.
“Glad to have met President @CyrilRamaphosa. At a time when India is marking the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, it is our honour to welcome President Ramaphosa as the Chief Guest for the 2019 Republic Day celebrations. Bapu’s close link with South Africa is well known,” Modi tweeted after the meeting.
Briefing the media about the RIC meeting, foreign secretary Vijay Gokhale said the trilateral was a “very positive meeting”.
“Prime Minister thanked President Putin for initiating this effort and all three leaders felt that given our respective roles as emerging economies and emerging markets, given our respective roles and influence in the world in terms of maintaining peace and stability in the region that it was perhaps important that the three countries should cooperate and coordinate in various areas in order to contribute to global peace and prosperity,” Gokhale said.
BUENOS AIRES: Leaders of the Group of 20 have agreed to fix the world trading system - but only 19 of them agreed to support the Paris accord on fighting climate change.
Applause rose up in the hall on Saturday as the leaders, including US President Donald Trump, signed off on a final statement at the end of a twoday summit.
The statement acknowledges flaws in the world trading system and calls for reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO). It doesn’t mention protectionism however, because negotiators said the US had resisted that.
The statement says 19 of the members reiterated their commitment to the Paris climate accord, but the US reiterates its decision to withdraw.
The non-binding agreement was reached after difficult allnight talks by diplomats.
Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she hoped a meeting between the US and Chinese leaders would help resolve trade tensions between the two countries.
Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping were due to meet later on Saturday on the sidelines of the summit in Buenos Aires.
Merkel told reporters it’s important that the talks “hopefully bring solutions, because all of us see that we are affected indirectly when Chinese-American economic relations are not as frictionless as a world order requires”.
Merkel said she expects the G-20 summit’s communique to include a reference to “multilaterism” - “it has to be fought for, but we are doing that”.
She added that the participants agree reform of the WTO is needed, and said she would send a clear signal for the success of global climate talks starting in Poland on Sunday.
Merkel’s spokesman said the German leader has voiced her concern about rising tensions in the Kerch Strait off Crimea and pushed for “freedom of shipping into the Sea of Azov” at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Merkel met Putin early on Saturday on the sidelines of the summit. Spokesman Steffen Seibert said their talks centred on Syria and the current tensions between Russia and Ukraine.
Last weekend, Russia seized three Ukrainian naval vessels and their crews in an incident escalating a tug-of-war that began in 2014 when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and supported separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine.
Germany and France have sought to mediate between Russia and Ukraine.
Seibert said Merkel and Putin agreed that the four countries should hold further talks at “adviser level”.
European diplomats said allnight talks have resulted in a possible “breakthrough” on fixing the global trading system.
Despite deep divisions going into the summit and resistance from the US, European Union officials said on Saturday that the countries would commit to reforming problems with the WTO.