Briefing by Foreign Secretary and Secretary (West) on PM’s visit to Toronto
Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao: The Fourth G20 Summit is being held on June 26th and 27th 2007 in Toronto, Canada. This is the fourth Summit of the international grouping within a span of 20 months, starting with the Washington Summit in November of 2008, the London Summit in April 2009, and the Pittsburgh Summit in September 2009. We believe this is indicative of the dynamism and importance of this grouping which since Pittsburgh has been designated as the premier forum for international economic cooperation.
As the host, the Prime Minister of Canada will preside over this Summit. Leaders of the G20 member countries are expected to attend. Canada has also invited Spain, Netherlands, Malawi (as Chair of the African Union), Ethiopia (which holds the Chair of NEPAD), and Vietnam (as the Chair country of ASEAN), to the Summit. In addition, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the President of the World Bank, the Managing Director of the IMF, the Director-General of the WTO, heads of the ILO, the Financial Stability Board, etc., are likely to be present.
Our Prime Minister will participate in the G20 Toronto Summit. PM’s delegation will include the Deputy-Chairman of the Planning Commission Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who is the G20 Sherpa from India. In addition, there will be other senior officials attending as part of Prime Minister’s delegation including the National Security Advisor.
Prime Minister will arrive in Toronto on June 26th and has a very busy schedule. The G20 Summit starts with an Official Welcome and Reception followed by Working Dinner by the Prime Minister of Canada and the day’s programme concludes with a cultural event. On June 27, the programme includes the Summit Opening Plenary followed by other plenary sessions, a G20 Family Photograph, a leaders’ working lunch, and finally the concluding Final Plenary in the afternoon.
After the Summit, Prime Minister will attend to the bilateral component of his visit to Canada on which my colleague Mr. Vivek Katju will brief you immediately following my opening statement.
Prime Minister will interact with leaders of participating countries in the G20 Summit on a range of bilateral, regional and global issues of mutual interest. Some bilateral meetings are envisaged on the sidelines of the Summit and we will keep you informed of them.
The host country Canada is organizing some side events in conjunction with the G20 Summit. There is firstly a G20 Business Summit, or B20, as it has been called, which will be held on June 25th and 26th 2010, to which each country has been invited to send two business persons. India will be represented at the B20 by CII and FICCI and it is event is being organised at the invitation of the Canadian Finance Minister.
The other event is the G20 Youth Summit called ‘MY Summit’ for which each country will be sending up to seven persons. India will be represented by a youth group selected by our Department of Youth Affairs. Select participants from the Youth Summit will also interact briefly with the G20 leaders on June 27 afternoon.
The forthcoming Toronto Summit’s theme is, “Recovery and New Beginnings”. The Summit’s main focus will be on implementation of the previous Summit decisions. Therefore, the leaders are expected to take stock of where we are and to chart the future direction. They can be expected to review the current status of the global economic recovery, as well as, the progress of implementation regarding the past G20 Summit decisions.
In the light of the above, the leaders will decide on the mandate and direction of the G20’s future course of action. Without trying to prejudge the deliberations of the Summit, broadly speaking some of the areas the leaders can be expected to address are: global recovery, its prospects and challenges; the framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth; international financial institutions (IFI) reform; financial regulatory reform; protectionism; and looking ahead to Seoul the venue of the Fifth G20 Summit in November 2010.
As in the past, a Toronto Summit Declaration or Communique is expected to be issued, although I would refrain from speculating on the outcome of the Summit or the contents of the Communique. I am sure all of you are aware of the background of the G20, the previous G20 Summits, the discussions that have taken place at the previous Summits. So, I am not going to go into those details. But what the G20 has sought to focus on in its previous Summit meetings and the meetings of the Finance Ministers is to evolve a common understanding on the causes of the global financial and economic crisis, a reaffirmation of commitment to financial and economic stability and growth, to evolve common principles for reforming the financial markets, and launching of the national plans for information.
As you know, the Pittsburgh Summit, which is the last Summit held before the Toronto Summit, had designated the G20 as the premier forum for international economic cooperation and had noted the success achieved in tackling the international financial and economic crisis by prompt and effective measures. It had mandated a framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth in the 21st century through sound macro-economic policies; emphasised the need for sustained strong policy responses to growth until a durable recovery was secured; and to avoid any premature withdrawal of stimulus while preparing for coordinated exit strategies. It had called for implementing regulatory measures governing banks, financial institutions, capital markets, compensation standards, risk taking, over- the- counter (OTC) derivatives, credit rating agencies, hedge funds, non-cooperative jurisdictions, as well as, reiterated the fight against protectionism and all its forms. It was also decided to hold a Summit at Toronto and thereafter at Seoul, and to have Annual Summits thereafter starting with France in 2011.
As you also know, the G20 comprises the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the EU, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, UK and the United States.