With India achieving the milestone of one billion vaccinations and India’s economy growing at a healthy pace, Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to the G20 summit in Rome for an extended weekend of intense diplomacy, which also includes a pitstop at Glasgow for the global climate summit conference. The 2021 G20, under Italian Presidency, will focus on triple P agenda of People, Planet and Prosperity. The G20 summit will culminate in a future-looking Rome Declaration on October 31. 
More than 16 leaders of G20 countries are expected to attend the G20 summit in person, hosted by Italy. Leaders of China, Russia, Japan and South Africa will not be present in Rome in person and participate in the summit virtually. The key focus areas of the summit will include: (i) Recovery from the Pandemic and Strengthening of Global Health Governance, (ii) Economic Recovery and Resilience, (iii) Climate Change and Energy Transition, and (iv) Sustainable Development and Food Security. “This will be the 8th G-20 Summit that Prime Minister would be attending. The G-20 has emerged as the premier global forum for international economic cooperation. India is scheduled to host the G-20 Summit in 2023 for the first time,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
PM Modi will pitch for concerted international action to expedite global economic recovery and effective multilateralism to address cross-cutting international challenges, said Manish Chand, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, India Writes Network and India and the World magazine. “This year’s G20 summit is especially significant for New Delhi as India will be part of the G20 troika and take over the presidency of G20 in November 2022 as it gears up to host its first G20 summit in 2023,” said Mr Chand from Rome.
PM Modi will, thereafter, travel to Glasgow to attend the World Leader’s Summit of the 26th Conference of Parties (COP-26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), at the invitation of the Prime Minister of the UK, H.E. Mr. Boris Johnson. COP-26 is being held from 31 October 2021 to 12 November 2021 under the Presidency of the UK partnering with Italy. The high-level segment of COP-26, titled the World Leaders’ Summit (WLS), will be held on 1-2 November 2021. The Summit will be attended by Heads of State/Government of more than 120 countries. COP-26 was originally slated to be held in 2020, but was deferred to 2021 in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.
