Group of Twenty meeting
The 2023 G20 New Delhi summit was the eighteenth meeting of the G20 (Group of Twenty), a Head of State and Government meeting held at Bharat Mandapam, Pragati Maidan, Delhi on 9–10 September 2023. It was the first G20 summit held in India.
Background.
Originally, India was scheduled to host the G20 summit in 2021 and Italy in 2022. At the 2018 G20 Buenos Aires summit in Argentina, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had requested Italy to host the summit in 2021 and allow India to host it in 2022, on the occasion of the 75th year of India's independence. Italy agreed to let India host the G20 summit in 2022 in its place, owing to the momentum in bilateral ties.
However, after a request made by Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, India exchanged its presidency of the G20 with Indonesia because Indonesia would also chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2023.
Presidency.
The G20 New Delhi Summit was chaired by the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. India's presidency began on 1 December 2022, leading up to the summit in the third quarter of 2023. The presidency handover ceremony was held, in which the G20 presidency gavel was transferred from Indonesian President Joko Widodo to Indian Prime Minister Modi at the close of the Bali summit. Indonesia held the presidency in 2022.
Indian Prime Minister Modi formally handed over the G20 presidency to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the President of Brazil. India would continue to hold the position until 30 November 2023.
Agenda priorities.
G20 India has put forth six agenda priorities for the G20 dialogue in 2023:
In an interview on 26 August 2023, Prime Minister Modi expressed optimism about the G20 countries' evolving agenda under India's presidency, shifting toward a human-centric development approach that aligns with the concerns of the Global South, including addressing climate change, debt restructuring through the G20's Common Framework for Debt, and a strategy for regulation of global cryptocurrencies.
Preparations.
The Government of India budgeted Rs. 990 crore (US$120 million) for the G20 events.
In the lead up to the G20 meeting, the Indian authorities, including the Archaeological Survey of India embarked on a mass demolition drive against homeless shelters and slum neighborhoods across New Delhi resulting in the eviction of its marginalized residents. Structures near the summit site were removed for being illegal, after giving residents time to vacate. Other demolitions occurred in areas far from the G20 venue, also following court orders. According to the 'Concerned Citizens' collective, this resulted in the displacement of an estimated 0.25 to 0.3 million people. In Delhi alone, almost 25 slums were bulldozed to the ground, including settlements in Yamuna Bank, Tughlaqabad and Mehrauli, among others.
In the days prior to the summit, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) placed life-size cutouts of langurs in several parts of the city to scare away the smaller rhesus macaque monkeys. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi rounded up almost 1,000 stray dogs and moved them to shelters in the run-up to the G20 summit.
For the security of the event, the government had deployed 130,000 security personnel, including 80,000 police officers from Delhi Police.
In the shutdown imposed on the 32 million people living in Delhi, all schools, offices, workplaces, marketplaces, restaurants and non-food shops were ordered to close for three days. Movement on the roads was also restricted, all food deliveries were restricted in areas under NDMC and people were recommended to stay at home.
Participating leaders.
The Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping decided to skip the summit in the Indian capital. Their places were taken up by Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese premier Li Qiang, respectively.
References.
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