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G20 Meeting
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday returned to India after a three-day visit to South Africa for the G20 and IBSA meetings. At the G20 Leaders Summit, Modi called for a global compact to prevent misuse of artificial intelligence and made a strong pitch for critical technologies to be human-centric, instead of finance-centric. At the India-Brazil-South Africa leaders meeting, the prime minister said the reform of the UN Security Council was no longer an option, but a necessity and asserted that the troika should send a clear message for changes to institutions of global governance. "The successful Johannesburg G20 will contribute to a prosperous and sustainable planet," Modi said in a post on X on Sunday. "My meetings and interactions with world leaders were very fruitful and will deepen India's bilateral linkages with various nations. I'd like to thank the wonderful people of South Africa, President Ramaphosa and the Government of South Africa for organising the Summit," Modi .
It is unfortunate that the US did not participate in the G20 in Johannesburg this weekend because important matters relating to world trade were discussed, South Africa's Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Parks Tau said on Sunday. Tau, asked whether the US would lose out by not attending and reduce its influence on global trade, said this needed to be judged in the context of what the outcomes of the G20 have been. It's been an important discussion around global trade, issues around the World Trade Organisation (WTO), discussion around industrialisation, financing for development, around debt. All those issues are important for the entire world and it is quite unfortunate that their (the US) voice was not coming across at these meetings, Tau said in a media briefing. The minister said discussions with the US around trade would continue. G20 is a separate process. Of course, I can't pretend that it does not reflect on the issues that have been discussed, but so far it hasn
G20 nations have underscored the need for enhancing the representation and voice of developing countries in decision making in Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) like the World Bank and IMF and other international economic and financial institutions. "In that context, we welcome the creation of a 25th chair at the IMF Executive Board to enhance the voice and representation of Sub-Saharan Africa," as per the leaders' declaration during the G20 South Africa Summit held in Johannesburg. G20 leaders reaffirm the critical role of MDBs in driving poverty reduction, economic growth, and development across client countries. "We welcome the inaugural Progress Implementation Report on the G20 MDB Roadmap by the Heads of MDBs Group. We further acknowledge the Capital Adequacy Framework's (CAF) potential to help MDBs more efficiently utilise existing resources, share more risk with the private sector and utilise new instruments to increase lending capacity over the next decade and recognise
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday embarked on a three-day visit to South Africa to attend the first G20 summit being held in Africa. During his stay in Johannesburg, the Prime Minister will also attend the sixth IBSA Summit on the sidelines of the G20. I will present India's perspective at the Summit in line with our vision of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' and 'One earth, One Family and One future', Modi said in his departure statement.
The US will attend only the closing ceremony of this weekend's G20 Leaders' Summit in Johannesburg, but will not participate in any deliberations, the US confirmed in a statement late on Thursday. South Africa will hand over the annual Presidency of the G20 to the US on Sunday, and had indicated that it would do so ceremonially to an empty chair after repeated threats by US President Donald Trump that there would be no representation from the US. The US announcement followed some tough talk earlier on Thursday, where South African President Cyril Ramaphosa took several swipes at Trump without naming him specifically. It cannot be that a country's geographical location or income level or army determines who has a voice and who is spoken down to. It basically means that there should be no bullying of one nation by another nation we are all equal, Ramaphosa said to huge applause from the delegates at the G20 Social Summit. By early evening, Ramaphosa was more conciliatory as he ...
President Donald Trump said Friday that no US government officials would be attending the Group of 20 summit this year in South Africa, citing the country's treatment of white farmers. Trump had already announced he would not attend the annual summit for heads of state from the globe's leading and emerging economies. Vice President JD Vance had been scheduled to attend in Trump's place, but a person familiar with Vance's plans who was granted anonymity to talk about his schedule said Vance would no longer travel there for the summit. It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa, Trump said on his social media site. In his post, Trump cited abuses of Afrikaners, including violence and death as well as confiscation of their land and farms. The Trump administration has long accused the South African government of allowing minority white Afrikaner farmers to be persecuted and attacked. As it restricted the number of refugees admitted annually to the US to 7,500, the
US President Donald Trump on Friday said the US will host next year's Group of 20 summit at his golf club in southern Florida. In his first term, Trump tried to host a separate global summit at the club, located in Doral, but backed down after criticism from his own party about the propriety of doing so. Well, I think everybody wants it there, Trump said Friday when asked if the global summit would be at his golf club and spa. He had previously announced that it would be in the city of Miami. Trump said the organisers had requested the summit be at his personal club.
Most countries need to put public debt on a sustainable path and rebuild fiscal buffers, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva told economic leaders from the G20 countries. Georgieva was addressign the first meeting of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors in Cape Town on Thursday. The meeting was hosted by South Africa, which holds the G20 Presidency for 2025. On the fiscal side, most countries need to put public debt on a sustainable path and rebuild fiscal buffers, Georgieva said. While mobilising more domestic revenues is crucial in many countries, it is equally important to promote more efficient public spending. The two go hand-in-hand to ensure that countries have the fiscal space to meet future shocks and provide the basis for higher future growth, she added. Georgieva said it was critical that countries embrace ambitious reforms to lift productivity and enhance growth prospects. The specific priorities will vary from coun
Highlighting the complexities of the current geopolitical landscape, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said the G20's ability to harmonise viewpoints is key to advancing the global agenda. Jaishankar is in Johannesburg on a two-day visit to South Africa to participate in the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting, Addressing the G20 session titled 'Discussion on the Global Geopolitical Situation', Jaishankar said the G20 is an important expression of the world's growing multi-polarity. "The global geopolitical situation remains difficult by any definition. Some of it is the accumulated challenges of the Covid pandemic, conflict situations, financial pressures, food security and climate concerns," he said on Thursday. But there are also the current anxieties about concentrated supply chains, weaponisation of trade and finance, and transparency of data flows, Jaishankar said. "Looking ahead, differential progress on Artificial intelligence and Electric vehicles, space, drones or gr
A meeting of foreign ministers from G20 countries will get underway in Johannesburg on Thursday, but US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will not attend amid diplomatic tensions between South Africa and the US. Diplomats including Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are expected to attend the gathering, while the US will be represented by acting ambassador to South Africa Dana Brown. The European Union, the United Nations and the African Union, which is part of the G20, will also be in attendance. Rubio snubbed the meeting after an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump stopped foreign aid to the country over a law that the White House said amounts to discrimination against the country's white minority. The US is also displeased with South Africa's case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. South African Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola has said that Rubio's decision was not a complete boycott of South Africa's G20." He s
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will skip a two-day meeting of foreign ministers from the leading rich and developing nations that starts on Thursday after criticising host South Africa's policies as anti-American. Instead, Rubio was headed back to the United States on Wednesday from his first trip to the Middle East as America's chief diplomat after leading a US delegation in talks with Russia in Riyad over the war in Ukraine. Rubio spoke with the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and the European Union's foreign policy chief to brief them immediately after Tuesday's meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, the State Department said. Top European diplomats, as well as Lavrov and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi are all expected at the Group of 20 meeting in Johannesburg while the US will be represented by a lower-level delegation. A G20 meeting would normally be an opportunity for a US secretary of state to push for support on US positio
Last year, then-presidential candidate Javier Milei declared Argentina would not "make deals with communists" in China or Brazil, calling their leaders "murderers" and "thieves" in a bid to channel the populist energies of Donald Trump and other global far-right icons into a winning political message. But on Tuesday, President Milei found himself at the Group of 20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro shaking hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping and vowing to boost trade with the Asian powerhouse, a day after his economy minister signed a preliminary agreement to export Argentine natural gas to Brazil. Milei even acquiesced to a joint declaration endorsed by world leaders late on Monday despite his earlier attempts to play spoiler to the G20 host, Brazil's left-wing President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva who was once called by Milei a "corrupt communist". The final moments of the high-profile summit on Tuesday revealed Milei's more pragmatic streak, coming as a surprise after the irascible ..