Priorities of the Brazilian G20 presidency align well with those India championed in 2024: Foreign Secretary Misri

African Union, which was inducted as a G20 member during India’s presidency, will attend the Brazil meeting of the grouping for the first time as a member, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Wednesday, noting that India will join two of the three pillars of Brazil’s flagship initiative at the G20 Summit, a global alliance against hunger and poverty.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the G20 Summit in Brazil and will also visit Nigeria and Guyana during his three-nation tour beginning on November 16.

“The visit to Brazil is for the 19th G20 Summit, which is being held on November 18,19. This is PM Modi’s third official visit to Brazil. He visited there in 2014 and then in 2019. Both occasions were for the BRICS Summit, which was being hosted by Brazil in those years. This particular G20 Summit is also going to be a special summit as it will be the first time that the African Union will be taking its place in the G20 grouping as a member. It was at the Delhi Summit last year that the African Union was inducted as a full member of the G20,” he said.

The Foreign Secretary said that the priorities of the Brazilian presidency, align very well with the priorities that India had championed and voiced during its presidency of the G20.

Apart from the G20 member countries, Brazil has also invited 18 guest countries- five each from Africa, Latin America and Asia, and three countries from Europe. Fifteen international organisations will be attending the summit, he said.

Misri said that the G20 summit is important for India as major developing economies of the world would be a part of the summit to discuss ideas for development.

“For India, the summit will be important as we look to the continuity of our priorities from the New Delhi summit, where several issues of interest, especially to emerging markets and developing economies were also discussed. The G20 has emerged as the primary forum for international economic cooperation and issues of global significance,” he said.

“It provides an opportunity for leaders of the 21 largest economies in the world, representing about 88 per cent of the global GDP, 78 per cent of international trade and three-quarters of the world’s population to come together and discuss key issues impacting the world, such as progress on sustainable development goals, multilateral reforms tackling environmental and climate challenges, debt sustainability, bridging the global digital divide, energy transition and emerging technologies,” he added.

Talking about the priorities of Brazilian presidency, Misri said that they are similar to India’s policies that it adopted during its presidency last year.

“The theme of this G20 is building a just world and a sustainable planet. And the three key priorities of the Brazilian Presidency are social inclusion and the fight against hunger and poverty, energy transitions and the promotion of sustainable development in its economic, social and environmental dimensions, and finally, reform of global governance institutions,” he said.

“The flagship deliverable of the Brazilian presidency is the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, which will be launched during the inaugural session of the Rio Summit. This will be an initiative that is open to non-G20 countries as well as also national, regional, and international organizations, regional and multilateral development banks, civil society organizations, and philanthropic institutions,” he added.

Misri said that there are three pillars of the alliance, and India would be joining two of them.

“There are three pillars under this alliance and India will be joining the national and knowledge pillars of this alliance. This will be the main sessions will be followed by a closing ceremony where the chairmanship of, or the presidency of the G20 will be handed over by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil to President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa. And this will also, in a sense, cap a run of four emerging markets holding the presidency in succession of the G20, starting with Indonesia, India, Brazil now, and South Africa the next year,” he said.

Misri added that the key priorities of Brazilian presidency are hunger and poverty, the same as India’s concerns during its presidency.

He said the target of tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling the rate of energy efficiency by 2030 are again being reaffirmed at the G20 this year.

“As regards energy transition, the ambition set in Delhi on tripling renewable energy capacity and doubling the rate of energy efficiency by 2030 are again being reaffirmed at the G20 this year. Another point of interest, which is the empowerment of women working group, which was envisioned during India’s presidency, was convened for the first time this year during the Brazilian presidency, and it cemented the narrative of women-led development in the G20,” he said.

“So the ambitious language that was reflected in the New Delhi leaders’ delegation has provided the basis for many of the G20 outcome documents that have been adopted this year. Some of our flagship priorities such as digital public infrastructure, mission life, women-led development, etc., have all found resonance. We look forward to a very successful and productive G20 summit in Rio,” he added.

PM Modi will visit Nigeria on November 16,17 and will travel to Rio De Janeiro during November 18-19 to attend the G20 Summit. He will undertake a state visit to Guyana from November 19 to 21.