Foreign ministers of G20 countries and other invitees have been arriving to attend the foreign ministers meeting of the world’s major economic grouping scheduled to begin Wednesday evening through a dinner.
The main discussion part of the two-day meeting will be held on Thursday as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to inaugurate the summit being held under India’s presidency. India got G20 presidentship in December last year.
According to sources, Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister of Brazil Mauro Vieira, Foreign Minister of Mauritius Alan Ganoo and ILO Sherpa Richard Marc Samans, Foreign Minister of Turkey Mevlüt Cavusoglu and Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, among others, have already arrived in New Delhi yesterday.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, European Union high representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell are expected to arrive in the city Wednesday evening.
Foreign ministers of other G20 countries and specially invited nations including Bangladesh are expected to arrive today.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen will join the meeting as India invited Bangladesh as a special country to join the G20 Summit scheduled to be held in September 9-10 this year in New Delhi.
Momen is scheduled to arrive in India Wednesday afternoon by a Bangladesh Biman Airlines flight, according to sources. After arriving, he will deliver a lecture on “Promoting Culture of Peace for Shared Prosperity: A Vision for South Asia” at Vivekananda International Foundation at 5PM.
Later, he will join a dinner to be hosted for the G20 Foreign Ministers and Heads of Delegation in the evening. Two sessions will also be held tomorrow at the G20 Foreign Ministers Meeting.
Major global challenges like spiralling food and energy costs, growing debts, are some of the issues that will be the focus of discussions. The meeting is taking place following the first anniversary of the Russia-Ukraine war and amidst the growing concern in the West.
The Group of Twenty comprises 19 countries-Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union.
The G20 members represent around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade and about two-third of the world population.
The G20 was founded in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis as a forum for the finance ministers and Central Bank governors to discuss global economic and financial issues.
