G20 Summit Is A ‘Great Opportunity’ For India To Showcase Its Strengths, Says Piyush Goyal

The next G20 summit presents a “great opportunity” for India to showcase many of its strengths and provide leadership to several global challenges, according to Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal.

Goyal is in the United States on an official business trip. On Wednesday, he co-chaired the India-US Trade Policy Forum with US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.

“The G-20 will be a very exciting opportunity for India to provide leadership to many of the challenges before the world. It will be an excellent opportunity for us to highlight India's many strengths,” he told reporters at a news conference in Washington on Wednesday. 

On 1 December last year, India formally assumed the G20 presidency. The next G20 Leaders' Summit at the Heads of State or Government level is scheduled for 9 to 10 September in New Delhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stated that India will work to further promote oneness, inspired by the theme of “One Earth, One Family, One Future” and has identified terrorism, climate change, and the pandemic as the most serious challenges that must be addressed collectively.

Prime Minister Modi also stated in an article published in several newspapers and posted on his website that India's G20 priorities will be shaped in consultation with not only its G20 partners but also its fellow travellers in the global South, whose voice often goes unheard.

Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union are all members (EU).

They account for more than 80 per cent of the global GDP, 75 per cent of international trade and two-thirds of the world's population.

Goyal described Modi as one of the world's “tallest leaders” who believes in action and solutions.

“If you recall, when (former US) Vice President Al Gore had come out with the inconvenient truth, Prime Minister Modi had come out with his own treatise on convenient action, because he's a person who believes in action. He has always been someone who believes in solutions,” he said. 

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has described India's G20 presidency as a “very big deal” and has stated that India intends to use its presidency to benefit the international community.

Jaishankar told members of the Indian diaspora in Vienna this month, “We are going to make sure that the diversity of every region, culture, local cuisine and local product is on display to the world.” “In a sense, you can think of it as marketing India to the rest of the world,” he added.