PM Modi is attending the G20 Rio Summit as..

Rio de Janeiro, Nov 18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was warmly welcomed by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva as the world's most influential leaders converged on the Rio de Janeiro Bay Museum of Modern Art on Monday for the two days of the 19th G20 Summit.

“I look forward to the discussions at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro. I thank President Lula for his warm welcome,” PM Modi posted on X after exchanging greetings with the Brazilian president.

Entering the hall, Prime Minister Modi also met several world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, Singapore Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, UN Secretary-General António Guterres and President of the World Bank Ajay Banga.

In addition to the leaders of the 19 member countries and the European Union, the Summit sees for the first time the participation of the African Union after being inducted as a full member of the group at the G20 Summit in New Delhi, the last year.

Brazil also invited 18 guest countries, five each from Africa, Latin America and Asia; and three European countries. Fifteen international organizations are also participating in the Rio Summit.

“The G20 has become the leading forum for international economic cooperation and debate on issues of global importance. It provides an opportunity for leaders of the world's 21 largest economies, which represent approximately 88% of global GDP, 78% of international trade and almost three-quarters of the world's population, to come together and discuss key issues impacting on the world, such as progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals, multilateral reforms, responding to environmental and climate challenges, debt sustainability, reducing the global digital divide, energy transition and emerging countries. technologies,” Foreign Minister Vikram Misri said before the prime minister's departure last week.

“Building a just world and a sustainable planet” was the theme of the G20 in Brazil with three key priorities, including social inclusion and the fight against hunger and poverty, energy transitions and the promotion of sustainable development in its dimensions economic, social and environmental issues and environmental reform. global governance institutions.

The flagship project 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 open also to non-G20 countries, as well as national, regional and international organizations, regional and multilateral development banks, civil society organizations and philanthropic institutions. This Alliance is based on three pillars and India will join the national and knowledge pillars of this Alliance.

The main sessions will be followed by a closing ceremony during which the G20 presidency will be handed over from President Lula of Brazil to President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, crowning a series of four countries with emerging markets and developing economies ( EMDE) assuming the presidency. will succeed the G20, starting with Indonesia, India, Brazil and South Africa, next year.

Misri stressed that the Rio Summit remains important for India particularly as it addresses the continuity of the priorities of the New Delhi Summit, where a number of issues of interest, particularly for markets emerging and developing economies, were discussed.

“Last year at the G20, as you will recall, we adopted the G20 Deccan High Level Principles on Food Security and Nutrition, which align with the main priority of the Brazilian presidency this year.” “Reforming multilateral institutions fit for the 21st century” was another key priority of our presidency and this year again, Brazil has highlighted this trend. G20 leaders called for better, bigger and more effective multilateral development banks at the New Delhi summit, which resonated globally and is recognized today. will be continued this year through the G20 roadmap for better, bigger and more efficient MDBs and it is a roadmap which will be approved by the leaders at the Rio summit”, declared the Minister of Foreign Affairs during of a briefing before Prime Minister Modi's three-country tour.

This is Prime Minister Modi's third official visit to Brazil, having visited the country in 2014 and 2019, also for the BRICS summits.