NEW DELHI: Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar on Thursday said that G20 Summit to be held in September is only for members and India has not reviewed the list or talked to anyone regarding the same.
When asked if India has extended an invitation to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or is planning to invite him to the G20 summit, “In our view, G20 participation is for members of G20 and for the countries and organisations who we have invited to the G20 and that list we had declared as soon as we assumed the Presidency of the G20. So, it is not something, you know, that we have not reviewed and it is not something very honestly which we have discussed with anybody.”
India assumed the G20 Presidency on December 1. While responding to a question regarding upcoming G20 summit, Jaishankar recalled that there were a lot of challenges in getting the final G20 declaration during Indonesia’s G20 Presidency. He said that they are endeavouring to find common ground in the upcoming G20 summit.
When asked if he believes that having a consensus on the leaders’ declaration will be a herculean task or a near impossible task, Jaishankar responded, “I remember last year there were a lot of challenges in getting the final G20 declaration did, and I in fact commended even then the Indonesian presidency for making that big effort and getting the Bali declaration. But, I would also share with you that even at that time, a lot of us worked alongside with Indonesia, that obviously Indonesia was the chair, but we were part of a Troika. And there were some countries who were not even members of Troika, but who had an interest in the manner and all of us put our collective energies together in that regard.”
He further said, “If my memory serves me right, last year, in fact, in September, I went to Moscow and one of the main reasons I went to Moscow at that time was really to discuss this with my Russian counterpart. So, this year we are endeavouring to find a common landing point. There are differences of opinion even about what was agreed to in Bali last year. So, how do we handle it, it’s very hard for me.
Diplomats are still working at it. So I don’t want to predict, I don’t want to sort of, in a way, give too much details. I accept your point that it’s a challenge, but diplomacy is a business for optimistic people. So, I think it’s something that we would look at.” (ANI)