Highlights of G20 Summit 2023 : World leaders come together in Delhi to discuss world trade and other agendas.

The G20 summit is very important for the nation as many countries are looking towards India as the land of investment. India is keen on becoming the fastest-growing economy in the next few years. The International Monetary Fund forecasted the same that India will be the fastest-growing economy by next year. India’s G20 presidency theme was ‘One Earth. One Family. One Future.’

PM Narendra Modi in his opening remarks at the Summit invited the President of the Union of Comoros and Chairperson of the African Union (AU), Azali Assoumani, to join other leaders at the high table. This event is significant as the G20 is a 55-member bloc second multi-nation grouping after the European Union.

Modi held more than 15 bilateral meetings in the two days with various country leaders. PM Modi had discussions with U.K. PM Sunak, Italian PM Meloni, and Japanese PM Kishida. The leaders who attended the G20 summit are British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin chose to remain absent and did not attend the summit.

All the world leaders assembled in Delhi and are keen to begin the ambitious project of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. Modi firmly believes that India is on the path to progressive growth and wants to strengthen mutual trust with other countries.

Modi was present for the launch event of 'Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment’ and ‘India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor’ during the G20 Summit. He said, “We all have reached an important and historic partnership. Soon, it will become an effective medium for economic integration of India, the Middle East and Europe. It will give a new direction to connectivity and sustainable development of the entire world. It will drive sustainable development for the entire world.”

Under India’s presidency, the G-20 nations emphasised the issue of climate change and will work towards achieving the temperature objectives outlined in the Paris Agreement. The G-20 bloc needs to fulfil their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) with the Paris Agreement’s temperature objectives.

At the Leaders’ Summit in New Delhi, the G-20 mandate expressed growing concern about the current state of global efforts to combat climate change. “We note with concern that global ambition and implementation to address climate change remain insufficient to achieve the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. We will urgently accelerate our actions to address development and climate challenges, promote Lifestyles for Sustainable Development (LiFE), and conserve biodiversity, forests, and oceans.”

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and U.S. President Joe Biden met briefly at Modi’s official residence. This is the second bilateral meeting in less than six months, and both leaders look to deepen the partnership between their countries.

A 29-point statement highlighted the global alliances right from building resilient strategic technology value chains and linking defence industrial ecosystems, to collaboration on renewable and nuclear energy, climate change and cancer research.

Both Modi and Biden expressed their appreciation for the considerable progress underway to implement the achievements of Prime Minister Modi’s historic June 2023 visit to Washington. The Quad is an informal security alignment of Australia, India, Japan and the U.S., and was created in response to China’s rising strength in the Indo-Pacific region.

Here's what top leaders present at the G20 summit in Delhi said:

• President Tinubu congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the success of India’s G20 Presidency. He also expressed gratitude for ensuring the permanent membership of the African Union in the G20, and for promoting the interests of the Global South.
• Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, “The active role of the Indian Presidency genuinely consolidated G20 members from the Global South, particularly our BRICS partners. Thanks to the consolidated positions, the Global South countries were able to uphold and protect their legitimate interests that caused the West to be unable to Ukrainaise the agenda.”
• Japan Prime Minister Kishida said, “Under the leadership of India as this year’s chair, we were able to agree on the G20 Leaders’ declaration which is a truly meaningful achievement. Japan has been engaged in the negotiations with the intent to pass on the outcome of the G7 to the G20 and we were able to hand over to the G20 points that were confirmed at the Hiroshima Summit.”

• EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X (formerly Twitter); Thank you for your skilful leadership of the G20, @narandramodi. A strong partnership with India is paramount for Europe. Glad to see our Trade & Tech Council in action and to have launched with you a historic project, the India – Middle East – Europe Economic Corridor. We also look forward to progress on a Free Trade Agreement that would unlock the great potential of our partnership.
• President of the Union of Comoros and Chairperson of the African Union (AU), Azali Assoumani said, “India is the 5th superpower in the world, so there is enough room for India in Africa. We also know that India is so powerful that it went to space. So we just need to coordinate. India is a superpower in terms of inhabitance and India is ahead of China now.” 
• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stated, “Canada will always defend freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, and freedom of peaceful protest and it is extremely important to us, at the same time we are always there to prevent violence and to push back against hatred.
• Geopolitical issues should not hijack the discussions at G20, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said. Lula spoke at the closing ceremony of the G20 Summit, “The bloc was not interested in a 'divided G20' and all the challenges could be faced only through joint action. “We need peace and cooperation instead of conflict.”

 The next summit will be held in Rio de Janeiro in November 2024.