G20 Foreign Ministers meet to take place in June end, India to participate in person

The Foreign Ministers of Group of Twenty (G20) nations are set to meet later this month and India will also be participating in the physical meeting, reported news agency ANI. This implies that External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar in June end will be travelling to Italy, which holds the rotational presidency of G20, to participate in the event.

G20 Foreign Ministers’ meet is set to take place after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that Group of Seven (G7) nations and guest countries “had a detailed discussion on the need for reforming global health governance. India has been actively engaged with international communities at the level of G20, G7 & World Health Assembly on various aspects related to dealing with the current pandemic.” Now that the G7 leaders’ summit ended on June 13, the next major event for G20 will take place at June end.

Even during the recently concluded G7 summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had joined the session virtually and spoke in at least two sessions in climate change and open societies. On climate change, PM Modi called for collaborative action, recognising that this challenge can not be addressed singularly. The Prime Minister also shared that India is the “only G20 country on track to meet its Paris commitments.” The G20 nations comprise 19 nations along with European Union. These 19 include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.

G20 Leaders Issue Rome Declaration, Commit To Coordinate Against COVID-19

Earlier, at the close of the Global Health Summit, the G20 leaders on May 21 issued a joint declaration aimed at coordinating worldwide efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a press release, the G20 leaders noted that the pandemic continues to be a global health and socio-economic crisis, with disproportionate direct and indirect effects on the most vulnerable as well as healthcare workers. They added that the pandemic will not be over until all countries are able to bring the disease under control and therefore, “large-scale, global, safe, effective and equitable vaccination in combination with appropriate other public health measures remains our top priority”. 

“We affirm our support for efforts to strengthen supply chains and boost and diversify global vaccine-manufacturing capacity, including for the materials needed to produce vaccines, including by sharing risks, and welcome the vaccines technology transfer hub launched by the WHO," the Rome Declaration read.

IMAGE: Twitter/ANI