INDIA TO STAMP ITS LEGACY AT G20

India gets a unique opportunity for the country to contribute to the global agenda on pressing issues of international importance

- ASAD MIRZA

Occupying the Presidency of the G20 and UNSC offers In-dia a unique chance to leave its legacy and make the voice of the Global South and developing world heard at these two august fora.

By assuming the Presidency of the G20 and UNSC, for one year and one month respectively, for next one-year India gets a unique opportunity for the country to contribute to the global agenda on pressing issues of international importance.

G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation representing around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 of the worldwide trade, and about two-thirds of the world population. During the G20 Presidency, to show its resolve to focus on those issues which are dear to it, India will hold about 200 meetings in 32 different sectors in multiple locations across India. The G20 Summit to be held next year would be one of the highest-profile international gatherings to be hosted by India.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar defining its agenda for G20 and UNSC has said that New Delhi would like to use the presidency of the group to reflect interests and concerns today of the global south.

As India formally assumed the G20 presidency Prime Minister Modi said he will work to further global good through an inclusive, action-oriented and decisive agenda. In a write-up Modi said India could catalyse a fundamental mindset shift to benefit humanity as a whole? “I believe we can”, he wrote.

The Prime Minister stressed that India’s G20 presidency theme -- ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’ -- is not just a slogan as it takes into account “recent changes in human circumstances”, adding that India’s G20 presidency will work to promote a universal sense of one-ness.