PM Modi asks G-20 countries to make India a partner in economic recovery

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, October 3

Prime Minister Narendra Modi called upon G-20 countries to make India their partner in economic recovery and resilient global supply chains.

Speaking at the G-20 Summit’s inaugural session on 'Economy and Covid pandemic' in Rome on Saturday, the Prime Minister touched on India’s economic reforms and its willingness to adopt a common global tax on corporations to urge the world’s top 20 economies, accounting for 80 per cent of the global GDP, to look at India as their prime investment destination.

The Prime Minister also said emergency use authorisation (EUA) to the Indian Covaxin vaccine by WHO will help facilitate the process of expedited vaccination for the world.

At the first-in person confabulations in two years, the G-20 Summit discussed the need for supplying vaccines to poorer countries and for giving them a further extension on debt relief, said Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

The conference was opened by Italian PM Mario Draghi who termed the global vaccine gap as “morally unacceptable” because global growth will remain behind due to low vaccinations and financing difficulties.

The Prime Minister also held several bilateral meetings as well as pull-asides on the margins of the G-20 conference. The PM briefly interacted with outgoing German Chancellor Angela Merkel and had pull-asides with US President Joe Biden, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK PM Boris Johnson and Canada PM Justin Trudeau. “We were not present when PM met Biden. They would have recalled their last meeting in September. The PM also accepted Biden’s side meeting on Sunday,” said Shringla

While the G-20 seemed to speak with the same voice on vaccine equity, cracks had appeared on the issue of climate change.

“There are two more sessions,” said Shringla, indicating that there was adequate time for a consensual statement on the issue.

 There were expectations that all G-20 countries would make new commitments before the UN climate conference (COP26) that begins on Sunday in Glasgow, Scotland. Most of the G-20 attendees will head for Glasgow but for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping who are participating in the two international conferences.

On Sunday, the G-20 may take up an issue that has hit economies hard—the imbalance in supply and demand in the global energy markets. Leaders would underscore the need for greater stability in oil and gas markets as the global economy has already been badly bruised by the pandemic.

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