Press Briefing by the Presidency on the G20 Leaders' Virtual Summit

During the concluding session of the 18th G20 Summit in New Delhi on 10 September 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that India would host a virtual G20 Leaders' Summit ahead of the conclusion of India's G20 Chairmanship. To accomplish this, a G20 virtual summit was organized in New Delhi on 22 November 2023.

• The G20 leaders' summit in New Delhi in early September 2023 was set to begin amid fears of war in Ukraine. In this context, Western media commentators suspected that the Delhi G20 summit would become irrelevant without a joint declaration for the first time.

Highlights of G20 Leaders' Virtual Summit:

• This time during the virtual G20 summit, the Israel-Hamas war is the matter of gravest global concern. The Government of India has reiterated its stated commitment of support for a two-state solution between Israel and Palestine while condemning terrorism in all forms.
• The virtual G20 summit is one of the most important events in West Asia since the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 2023.
• This Virtual Summit took forward key, selected outcomes/action points from the New Delhi Summit as well as reviewed developments since then.
• The deliberations of the second Voice of Global South Summit held on 17 November 2023 were also discussed in this conference.
• The virtual G20 summit emphasized effective implementation of various G20 decisions, including relevant national and international fora.

Nirmala Sitharaman on crypto assets:

• Nirmala Sitharaman says G20 has formally adopted a regulatory roadmap for crypto assets.
• Sitharaman believes that the G20 will also need to provide regular updates to the IMF, FSP and FATF regarding the progress and implementation of the roadmap on crypto assets.

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar discusses geopolitical issues:

• Geopolitical issues were discussed at the G20 virtual summit by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
• According to Jaishankar, most of the progress has been made on the agenda of the New Delhi summit. Of course, the two geopolitical issues that came up in the meeting were the Middle East and West Asia.
• The situation in Gaza was discussed in more detail. The Ukraine conflict and its consequences were also discussed.
• Prime Minister Modi assured Brazilian President Lula of India's full support.
• All 21 members of the G20, including the African Union (AU), nine guest countries and eleven international organisations, participated in the meeting. The discussions were fruitful. It was very productive. All leaders congratulated the Prime Minister on the successful conduct of India's G20 Chairmanship.
• External Affairs Minister Jaishankar has given his appropriate reaction when Chinese President Xi Jinping was also not present in the G20 virtual summit.

Prime Minister Modi's message:

• In the Delhi Manifesto, we had made commitments in various areas, today we have again pledged to take them forward. After listening to your views on the position of the West, I can say that there has been consensus on many issues in the G20 like Zero Tolerance of Terrorism, killing of civilians is unacceptable, humanitarian aid must arrive quickly, humanitarian pause, welcome the announcement of release of hostages, stressed the need for a two-state solution, regional stability, dialogue and diplomacy.