Five Key Takeaways from G20 Summit: PM Modi’s 6-Point Agenda, Climate Deal, US Boycott

Five Key Takeaways from G20 Summit: The G20 Leaders’ Summit in South Africa has brought together world leaders, and started its activities on Saturday in Johannesburg where it has made its opening address by its President Cyril Ramaphosa.

Ramaphosa has stated that South Africa has tried to maintain integrity and stature of the Group of 20 top economies. He also stated that the country would make sure that the development priorities of the Global South and the African continent will be reflected in the agenda of the summit Reuters reported.

The three-day summit began on Saturday (November 21) although Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to Johannesburg a day before. Upon arrival, Modi had some crucial meetings with international leaders, one of which was a bilateral meeting with his Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese.

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“Landed in Johannesburg for the G20 Summit related engagements. Look forward to productive discussions with world leaders on key global issues,” PM Modi said in a post on X.

Before the end of its day, the following are some of the key lessons of G20 summit.

PM Modi's six-point agenda

The PM Modi proposed the vision of six new initiatives by G20 in India. The initial proposal made by the PM involved immediate and concerted effort to defeat the drug trafficking problem.“India proposes a G20 Initiative on Countering the Drug-Terror Nexus,” PM Modi said.

His second suggestion was aimed at developing a G20 Global Healthcare Response Team consisting of trained medical practitioners in the member countries who could be deployed. On their part, PM Modi in his push towards the development of the host country Africa also advanced the G20 Africa-Skills Multiplier Initiative to guide the transformation of the workforce in the country.

His fourth suggestion was in the creation of a a Global Traditional Knowledge Repository. Lastly, PM Modi declared a G20 Open Satellite Data Partnership and proposed to develop a G20 Critical Minerals Circularity Initiative.

G20 embraces declaration in spite of US boycott, opposition

On the first day, the G20 summit came up with a declaration to tackle the climate crisis and any other global challenges.

The declaration was written without any contributions of the United States of America with the white house declaring that South African President Ramaphosa was declining to assist an easy shift in the presidency of the G20.

“This, coupled with South Africa’s push to issue a G20 Leaders Declaration, despite consistent and robust US objections, underscores the fact that they have weaponized their G20 presidency to undermine the G20’s founding principles,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said.

Trump had boycotted the summit on the grounds that South Africa is seeking racist and anti-White policies and persecutes its Afrikaner White minority. In February, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio had also absent a G20 foreign ministers meeting, telling them that the agenda was all about diversity, equity and inclusion and climate change. He also added that he would not waste the American taxpayers money on that.

The focus on Critical Minerals Framework

During the summit declaration, critical minerals Framework was created with the goal of leveraging critical minerals to drive sustainable development and inclusive economic growth.

The framework also aims at making sure that the countries that produce such minerals, particularly in the global south, can be in a position to extract optimal advantage out of their resources.

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“We recognise that, as the world economy is undergoing significant changes, including sustainable transitions, rapid digitisation and industrial innovations, the demand for critical minerals will increase,” the declaration stated.

It also indicated that the advantages related to the minerals have not been realised fully and the countries of production have been challenged with such aspects as underinvestment, inadequate value addition and beneficiation, inexistence of technologies and socio-economic and environmental problems.

The necessity to increase climate finance

The need to increase climate finance substantially and swiftly to scale it, as a global endeavor, to trillions of dollars was underscored in the G20 declaration, which was adopted on the same day as the COP30 UN climate negotiations reached a deal that was signed.

It also resonated the disparities in terms of access to energy especially in Africa and outlined the necessity to scale up and diversify investments towards sustainable energy transition.

It also talked about climate related disasters, as the leaders said, they would facilitate the creation of more early warning systems to those who are at risk.

The focus on Ukraine on the sidelines

Nevertheless, even though Ukraine was mentioned in the declaration of 30 pages only once, referring to the discussion of the major global conflicts, the conflict has remained visible in the minds of Western leaders who participated in the summit during their talks on the sidelines.

It demands just, comprehensive, and lasting peace in Ukraine, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

A statement was made by the European leaders in the Group of 20 summit following scandalous revelations of a 28 point-peace plan of the US President Donald Trump, which was leaked, according to Bloomberg. The leaders are attempting to purchase Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky some time and devise a counter-suggestion.

“The draft is a basis which will require additional work,” the statement by the European leaders said, according to Bloomberg. “We will continue to coordinate closely with Ukraine and the US over the coming days,” they said.

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