Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: A very good afternoon to all of you. Thank you very much for joining us today on this special media briefing that we have for you. As you know, Honorable Prime Minister is scheduled to leave later tonight for first Italy, Rome and then to the United Kingdom, Glasgow. We have the privilege of having with us here, Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary to give us a sense of what the visit is about and what we can expect, also take some questions. I know you have a lot of interest in these visits. We also have the privilege of having with us Srinivas Gotru, Joint Secretary (UNES) who deals with the climate change aspect of this. So welcome once again. I would request Honorable Foreign Secretary to perhaps say something in the beginning to give us a sense of where we are and then we will open the floor for few questions. Sir the floor is yours.
Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary: Namaskar and Good Afternoon to all our friends from the media. This briefing is about the Prime Minister's travel to Rome and Glasgow for two important international conferences, the 16th G20 Summit and the World Leaders Summit of COP26. Prime Minister will be in Rome, Italy from the 29th to 31st of October. He will reach Rome on 29th morning, and he will depart from Rome on the evening of 31st October for Glasgow. He would be in Rome to attend the G20 summit at the invitation of the Prime Minister of Italy His Excellency, Mr. Mario Draghi. This would be Prime Minister's 8th G20 Summit. He has already participated in seven G20 Summits before this. You're aware that the summit last year hosted by Saudi Arabia was held virtually because of the COVID 19 pandemic. The last in-person summit that the Prime Minister had attended was in Osaka in June 2019.
Italy's theme for this presidency is ‘People, Planet, Prosperity’, it actually comes from the 2030 UN Agenda for Sustainable Development. There are five P's here, but Italy has chosen to retain the three P's as being the theme for the G20 Summit. And the focus of Italy is on recovery from the pandemic, and strengthening global health governance, economic recovery and resilience, climate change and energy transition and sustainable development and food security. India fully supports the priority areas chosen by Italy and the government to tackle the global financial crisis of 2008. It responded effectively to the crisis, thus becoming the premier forum for international economic cooperation. Since then, the G20 agenda has gradually expanded to include a number of issues of socio-economic importance, with strong emphasis on achievement of sustainable development and climate goals.
Today, the G20 represents approximately 80% of the world's GDP, 75% of global trade, and 60% of the world's population. Thus, it is fitting to say that over time, the G20 has emerged as not only the premier global forum for international economic cooperation, but also an important platform to exchange, innovate and deliberate on policy issues that have a direct and tangible impact on the quality of life of our citizens, and this could be in the areas of global financial stability, sustainable finance, infrastructure, health, food security, education, labour, employment, energy and climate change, digital economy, women's empowerment, and innovation and this is just to name a few. The G20’s success and continued relevance can be measured by its immediate response to the COVID 19 pandemic and its focus on sustainable and resilient economic recovery from the pandemic.
As a founding member of the G20, India has always been a proactive and positive player in its processes, speaking not only for itself, but also for the larger developing world. We are one of the few developing countries that are a part of the G20. We have strongly advocated the full implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa action agenda, and the Paris agreement among other international commitments. We have also been a strong voice in seeking reform of the multilateral system, including global health governance architecture with the WHO at its centre, the global trading system with the WTO at its core, and international financial architecture, to make the system more responsive, inclusive and representative and reflective of contemporary realities.
Let me spend a few minutes to go over the focus areas of the upcoming G20 Summit along with India's position, contribution in each of these agenda items. Might find them a little lengthy, but the idea is to make sure that we respond to any queries that you have pre-emptively. As I mentioned earlier, the thrust of the upcoming summit will be on economic and health recovery, climate change and sustainable development. We are now close to the second year of our dealing with the pandemic. Obviously, the devastation it has caused cannot be overstated. It is therefore not surprising that the Italian presidency has kept its focus on recovery, and of course, economic and health recovery both. They have already set the stage for an ambitious agenda on global health governance, with a parallel focus on recovery from the ongoing crisis in preparing for the future health crises that may emerge.
We have been a strong advocate in the G20 for supporting equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 disease control tools, including vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics, through technology transfer, diversification of supply chains and production hubs. As a result of our efforts, the G20 has recognised that extensive vaccination is a global public good. And I have to again emphasise that this has been our contribution in the G20 Lexicon that would be evident at the summit. At the same time, we have used the G20 platform to make a strong case to strengthen and reform the WHO led global health governance architecture. India supports ongoing efforts to create mechanisms for pandemic prevention, preparedness and response, including the mobilisation of Global Financing for this purpose and for addressing the existing gaps, better coordination between stakeholders, better management of common resources to effectively deal with future pandemics.
You may recall that it was the initiative of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi that to the Saudi presidency convened an extraordinary summit to the G20 on the COVID-19 situation last year. In fact, the G20 has primarily met on economic and financial issues and the Prime Minister noted that this was the first time the G20 actually met to consider humanitarian issue. And I think that has stayed with the G20 and that is a new element of working for the global common good, which has been one of the important areas of the vision of the Prime Minister and what India has proposed at international fora.
Now, one major outcome of that Saudi Arabian hosted Summit, as we would recall is the DSSI or what is known as the Debt Service Suspension Initiative. One of the most tangible outcomes. More than 45 countries, these are developing and least developed countries, have been provided liquidity relief amounting to over $5 billion as a result of this decision taken by the G20. It has helped countries focus their resources on addressing the socio economic impact of the pandemic. India has supported the extension of the Debt Service Suspension Initiative until the end of December this year.
The G20 has also played an important role in orchestrating global response to the pandemic. India chairs the G20 framework working group, which has been tasked with formulating the G20's economic response to the pandemic. This has provided us with a unique vantage point for influencing the manner in which global economic response is being designed. Our work is ensured that countries especially advanced economies, take into account the spillovers of domestic policy actions so that the impact of these actions on the rest of the world is minimised. We have been particularly careful in ensuring that there is no premature withdrawal of support and the most vulnerable sections of the population which have been the most severely hit by the pandemic are provided necessary support as long as they need to recover from the pandemic. We of course benefited from clear communications from the Finance Ministries and Central Bank Governors about their policy stances.
Further, India has also used the G20 platform to build international cooperation to improve tax transparency, to fight illegal practices such as tax evasion, tax avoidance, round tripping, base erosion and profit sharing, beneficial ownership, money laundering, bribery, corruption and other crimes. We have pushed for coordination on international taxation, matters to address the mismatch between the source of generation of profits and the jurisdiction where they're taxed. The reform agreements reached i.e. the global minimum tax deal, which you're familiar with will ensure that large multinational companies pay a minimum effective corporate tax, stopping the race to the bottom in corporate taxes by adopting a global minimum tax rate. This will benefit India by tackling the shifting of businesses to low tax jurisdictions or tax havens.
As the co-chair of the G20 anti-corruption working group, India has also worked very closely with all G20 members to come out with some strong and tangible outcomes, including G20 High Level Principles on Preventing and Combating Corruption in Emergencies. India has contributed significantly towards the five think pieces related to asset recovery, information sharing, law enforcement cooperation, technology and denial of safe havens. The important outcomes of these think pieces have been included in the anti-corruption working group action plan for 2020 to 24. Italy holds the presidency of the G20 as well as the co-chairmanship of COP26. In other words, they are involved with both summits, and as you know, these are both back to back summits. The global agenda on climate change and energy transition is the focus for both these summits. So, G20 will also consider climate change and we move into more specialised focus on climate change at the COP26. We have been supportive of the priority attached by the Italian presidency to building international consensus to combat climate change. We have made significant contributions to the discussions on this issue within the G20 by strongly advocating developing countries concerns and perspectives.
As I mentioned earlier, India along with other developing countries, has pushed for the G20 to gradually expand its mandate to focus on comprehensively meeting the sustainable development agenda. Thus, over time, we have seen the G20 focus more strongly in issues of universal health coverage, agriculture, food security and nutrition, quality education and quality jobs, women's employment and gender equality and digital inclusion. As a developing country, we have used G20 forum to bring attention to these issues and build support and mobilise resources for those who need them most.
This year, the Italian presidency convened a special session of the G20 Foreign and Development ministers on ‘Food Security and Nutrition’ in June this year, and we ensured that the proposed policies and decisions did not lose sight of the interests of small and marginal farmers, the conservation of local food culture and to promote agro biodiversity and ensure food security in a sustainable manner. This allows us to complement the effort being undertaken domestically to end hunger and malnutrition through our National Food Security Mission.
Digital focus has also been a strong point we have worked in the G20 in line with our Digital India mission. Digital Inclusion Social Security benefits by leveraging technology. The idea of data for development is a strongly Indian idea instead of treating it as a tool for profit. Discussions at the G20 will influence policies and standards in the years to come and our voice has been on balancing the benefits of technology along with potential risks.
There is unanimity in the G20 on building back from the pandemic by focusing on job creation, skill development and I think this is an important part of the overall discussions and the agenda that will be there. Women's empowerment, increased participation in women's workforce also for international travel, I think that is an important point, resumption of international travel through mutual recognition of national vaccine documents, this has been our proposal and there is strong support within emerging market economies in the group in this regard.
Let me stop on my G20 part other than to say that the G20 remains a valuable forum for India's engagement with the major economies of the world and setting the trend and norms for global economic development and recovery. We will be joining the G20 Troika on the first of December this year, and will continue to be a voice for the common citizens of developing countries and emerging market economies in the G20.
Let me move on to the COP26 part of the Prime Minister's travels. The Prime Minister will be in Glasgow, United Kingdom to attend the World Leaders’ Summit of the 26th Conference of Parties - COP26 to the United Nations Framework conference on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It's rather long, let's say nomenclature but nonetheless, I thought I should at least mention it once. This is at the invitation of the Prime Minister of the UK, His Excellency Mr. Boris Johnson.
COP26 was originally slated to be in 2020, deferred to 2021 in view of the COVID situation. It will be held from the 31st of October to the 12th of November. And as I mentioned, it will be co-chaired by UK and Italy. And over the course of these 13 days, meetings will collectively discuss over a 100 agenda items, most of them would be highly technical in nature. The high level segment of the COP26, which is where Heads of State and Government are involved, titled the World Leaders’ Summit will be held on the 1st and 2nd of November 2021 and is expected to be attended by Heads of State and Government of more than 120 countries. So fairly wide representation at this summit.
By way of background, the UNFCCC was concluded in 1992. It embodies the global will and vision to combat climate change. For three decades the UN has been bringing together almost every country in the world for global climate change summits called the Conference of Parties. These Conference of Parties provide opportunity for stocktaking, charting the way forward to combat climate change. The last such meeting attended by the Prime Minister was in Paris in 2015, which was when the Paris agreement was concluded. 2021 marks the start of the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
Under the Paris Agreement, all parties have targets in the shape of nationally determined contributions for combating climate change. In India, our own traditional ethos promotes living in harmony with nature, values sustainable lifestyles. It forms an important part of our comprehensive approach to the COP26. Despite our huge developmental challenges, we are taking ambitious action on expanding clean and renewable energy, energy efficiency, afforestation and biodiversity. Today India is creating new records in collective effort for climate adaptation, mitigation, and resilience and forging multilateral alliances. We are among the top countries in the world in terms of installed renewable energy, wind and solar energy capacity. Our capacity for renewable energy has increased by more than 250% in the last six or seven years and we are on course to achieve our target of 450 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030 that the Prime Minister declared last year.
There are national schemes such as ROSHANEE, which is the energy efficiency roadmap; UJJWALA which is the cooking gas mission; UJALA which is the LED lighting ; PM KUSUM, which is the solar energy for agriculture; Jal Jeevan mission is the drinking water supply mission. Energy efficiency, LED lights, clean cooking fuel, tap water have reached hundreds of millions of our citizens in the past few years. A comprehensive National Hydrogen Energy Mission with its emphasis on generating and utilising green hydrogen will be a quantum leap in tackling climate change. In his Independence Day address this year, the Prime Minister has put forth the vision of India as a global hub for green hydrogen production export in the coming 25 years.
First, of course, we take into account the fact that we represent 1/6th of humanity. We are one of the large countries also in terms of geographical space in the world. For us, it is not just the domestic initiatives that we have taken, which is, I would say contributes greatly to the overall global actions and climate change. But we've also contributed to multilateral initiatives, in other words, global initiatives to deal with the issue of climate change. These initiatives are in the form of the International Solar Alliance, the Coalition for Disaster Resilient infrastructure, among the fastest growing international organisation in the world, making important contributions to create low carbon pathways for industry transition, climate adaptation, enhancing infrastructure resilience, solar projects and technology.
Essentially, at COP26, we will work to achieve completion of the Paris Agreement implementation guidelines, mobilisation of climate finance, actions to strengthen climate adaptation, technology development and transfer and keeping the reach of the Paris Agreement of limiting the rise in global temperature.
The Prime Minister will deliver the national statement at the World Leaders’ Summit on 1st November, he will participate in leader’s level events organised with the COP26 presidency around the themes of climate change, mitigation, adaptation and building resilience, clean technology, innovation and deployment. So there are several sessions within the COP26 but there are also a number of side events. One of the important events is the launch of the global Green Grids Initiative, the One Sun One World One Grid of the International Solar Alliance. The Prime Minister will also separately launch the Infrastructure for Resilient Island States (IRIS), an initiative of the Coalition of Disaster Resilient infrastructure for island countries. This is primarily for small island developing states. This will be launched with the two other chairs, the UK Prime Minister and the Australian Prime Minister. It will also involve many world leaders who will be part of that effort. And these events will have high level representation from many countries and the UN. The Prime Minister will also have several bilateral meetings on the side-lines of COP26, including in Italy with the Prime Minister of Italy, who is the host of G20 and at COP26 with the Prime Minister of the UK who's the host of the COP26.
Prime Minister will be calling on His Holiness Pope Francis at the Vatican, when he is in Rome, and he, as I mentioned, will be meeting several other world leaders. Keep in mind of course, that beyond the bilateral meetings that we are scheduling, this is work in progress. Both these summits actually have a lot of roundtable interaction, so you meet a lot of Heads of state and government even in the normal course of attending these summits.
We are looking forward to a COP26 that would bring forth fair and objective discussions and a balanced outcome. We hope that the COP26 will register path breaking advances on finance, technology transfer, capacity building support. Achieving breakthroughs on these vital issues will help foster a green and inclusive recovery. I will stop here.
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Thank you very much, sir. I think that was really a good comprehensive understanding not just of the wonders of the visit, but also on the elements that are likely to come up during these two very important summits. Now I know that there are a lot of questions, so we'll probably take a group. Please introduce yourself and the outlet so that we have it for record.
Manish Jha: Foreign Secretary, mai Manish Jha hun TV9 se, Jaisa ki aapne kaha to Pradhan Mantri Vetican mein jab Pope se milenge to kya ye one to one Meeting hogi ya delegation ke sath hogi aur kya Pradhan mantri aur Pope ki kisi Vishay par baatcheet bhi hone wali hai ya kewal courtesy bhaint hogi ye? (Questioned in Hindi; Approximate Translation) Foreign Secretary, I am Manish Jha from TV9, as you said, when the Prime Minister will meet the Pope in the Vatican, will it be a one-to-one meeting or will it be with a delegation and will there be talks between the Prime Minister and the Pope on any topic or will this will be only a Courtesy call?
Akhilesh Suman: Sir I’m Akhilesh Suman from Sansad TV. When you are telling about this One World One Sun One Grid launch, is it just between India and UK or other countries will also participate in that? It is about COP26 and other question about G20 that you are talking about better management of future pandemics. What India has noticed as mismanagement during this pandemic, can you tell us and will you raise this question in G20?
Speaker 1: Sir, could we have some details on the bilateral meetings, any of them been finalized at Rome and at Glasgow and the follow up question to what Manish asked about the call on the Pope so, there were lots of requests that the Pope should visit India, and he had visited South Asia few years ago but not visited India. So will there be any hopes of Papal visit anytime soon? Thanks.
Kadambini: I’m Kadambini from NDTV India. When we talk about better management of future pandemics, would there also be a push for finding out the origin of present pandemic in G20?
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Sir I think we can take this round.
Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary: Well, let me start with the bilateral issue and many of the questions were on that. I have mentioned some of the bilaterals, he will be meeting the chairs of both the G20 and COP26 in a bilateral capacity. He'll be going to Italy so he will meet the Italian Prime Minister, going to UK he will meet the UK Prime Minister. He will also call on the pope as I said. Aur His Holiness Pope ke saath kya discussions honge weh mein bata nahin paunga abhi. Iss mein ye to jaroor saabit hai ki ye ek bahut hi mahatvpoorn meeting hai. Prime Minister jab Rome ja rahein hain, Vatican ja rahein hein to Pope ko milna jaroori hai wahan pe aur usmein mere khayal se one to one hogi ya delegation level talks hogi, wo tay honge par normally ye meetings mein kuch delegation member to hote hein dono taraf se. (Answered in Hindi; Approximate Translation) I will not be able to tell what will be the discussions between the Prime Minister and His Highness Pope at this stage. Here it is definitely proved that this is a very important meeting. When the Prime Minister is going to Rome or Vatican, then it is necessary to meet the Pope there and in that I think there will be one to one or delegation level talk, that will be decided. But normally there are some delegation members in these meetings from both sides. With regard to bilaterals, let me say that besides the ones that I've mentioned, we are also looking at meeting the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince who will be there, Saudi Arabia, as you know, the immediate Past President of G20. We will be meeting the next President to the G20, which is the Indonesian Presidency and the President of Indonesia. There are a very large number of bilaterals that are still being worked out, I will not be able to give you the details now. But I think at the venue, and before the bilateral, we will certainly provide a list of those that have been firmed up. But I think you have to keep in mind as I said that there is scope for a number of meetings, which are in the margins and within the conferences themselves. And we have kept a room for those sort of meetings as well.
In terms of the management of the pandemic, I think this is an important point of discussion in the run up, as you know, there has been a health summit that the Italian Presidency hosted in May, earlier this year. There's been a fair amount of discussion on how to deal with the issue of both the current pandemic and future pandemics that may arise, the Global Health architecture, how we can deal with it, the G20 is going to come up with very concrete, I would say outcomes on this and you will have to look out for it, there is a suggestion to create mechanisms that would cater to the requirements of future health pandemics. Again, until this issue is fully decided I can't share with you details of this but there are some fairly intensive discussions on the sort of architecture that the G20 could create that could supplement international cooperation, collaboration dealing with future pandemics. The issue of the origin of the COVID virus has been a subject of a fair amount of discussion in international fora. And as you know, this issue is being dealt with by the WHO, and this issue will continue to be addressed in the appropriate forums. I think I would have covered most of the questions that have been asked in this round.
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Sir I think that covers most of those things.
Archana Choudhary: Hello, this is Archana Choudhary from Bloomberg. Could you say something more about this this mutual recognition of vaccines proposal of India's and also what would be the criteria for this recognition?
Rishikesh: Hello sir, Rishikesh from Sputnik News. Global economy including Indian industries are suffering from chips shortages. And most of the experts and even some agencies are saying that this issue will persist over for at least two years. So, will there be any concrete proposal from Indian side on how to tackle this semiconductor chips shortage?
Brahma Prakash: Main Brahm Prakash hoon Zee News se, mera sawal ye hai ki WHO ka is pandemic ki shuruaat se lekar jo ravaiya raha hai, pehle WHO par aarop lage ki China mein jo origin tha wo sahee vakt par jaanakaari nahin di. Ab Covaxin ko lekar jo WHO ka ravaiya hai, Covaxin ke approval ko, jo bhaarateey vaccine hai, usko lekar kaee bhaartiye experts keh rahe hain ki yeh Western interest ke chalte WHO ne ye ravaiya apnaaya hai, jo deri ki ja rahi hai bhaaratiye vaccine, Covaxin ko approval ke liye. To kya iss ko aap logon ne consider kiya hai? ye mudda hoga agenda mein? (Questioned in Hindi; Approximate Translation) I am Brahm Prakash from ZEE NEWS, my question is that what has been the attitude of WHO since the beginning of this Pandemic, first the WHO was accused that it did not give the information about origin as China at the right time. Now the attitude of WHO regarding Covaxin and its approval, many Indian experts are saying that this attitude has been adopted by WHO due to western interest which is delaying the approval of Indian vaccine, Covaxin. So have you considered this issue, whether this issue will be on the agenda?”
Nayanima: Nayanima from ThePrint. Will we raise the issue of the TRIPS waiver for COVID vaccine something that India had floated along with South Africa at the WTO? Thank you.
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: The last one, you want to ask?
Srinjoy: Sir, you said there'll be a bilateral with Draghi. They have been pushing this Leonardo case for quite a while, is that going to be under discussion and is any kind of breakthrough partial waiver likely? Secondly, this is also at a time when you are having a lot of bilaterals in both countries. There is a considerable pressure coming in terms of cross border incidents that has gone up recently. And there is also a planned way to bring all this up. Will this be discussed in bilateral meetings with friendly countries?
Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary: Well, let's start with Archana’s question on mutual recognition of vaccines. As you know, India has proposed to our partner countries, primarily countries that Indian citizens normally travel to, that you recognise our vaccine certification, and we will mutually recognise your country's vaccine certification. Now the advantage of that is that as we keep adding new vaccines to our, let us say stock of national vaccines, you don't need to go to every country to try and get recognition. The certification that we issue, you recognise its integrity, and we will give you mutual treatment. I'm happy to say that a number of countries have already agreed to that. So we have achieved some reciprocal arrangements with a number of countries, we are working with all of our partner countries to have similar arrangements, it will simplify international travel, it will normalise international travel. It's an important objective the G20, as I mentioned, to not only effect recovery in terms of health, but also economic recovery. So business travellers, tourists, which contribute to the recovery of economies will be greatly benefited from this, let's say, simplified international travel regime that we are proposing. And we have taken it up with the G20, we've taken it up bilaterally, we've taken it up in plurilateral forums, we will continue to advocate this as a means of better and easier access to citizens travelling all over the world.
I think the question from Rishikesh was about chip shortages and whether we will raise that issue, I think that is a valid point. We have raised it in the past also in other meetings that we have had at the summit level. Recently Prime Minister went to the United States, the talk of the issue of resilient, sustainable secure, stable supply chains was taken up, was discussed extensively with our partners. We will continue to advocate this in our various meetings that we will have. The idea is to try and ensure that there is a greater preparedness for meeting such situations through greater collaboration with our main partners and the international community.
"Zee News se aap ka sawal tha Covaxin approval ke bare mein, jaise aap ko pata hai WHO ka ek jo Technical action group jo hai, jise TAG kehte hein, ye regulatory group hai. Inki meeting hui thi 26 taarikh ko, us meeting mein unhone kuch prashn puche the Bharat Biotech ko, jis pe jaise hamein soochna mili hai, wo sab jawab Bharat Biotech jaldi se jaldi WHO ko de degi. Mere khyal se ye jo Regulatory Group hai, ek bar inke jo prashn achi tarah Respond ho jaate hein, to Covaxin ke liye Approval bhi turant aana chahiye. Par aap ko ye samajh mein aana chahiye ki ye Technical Group hai, Regulatory Group hai, emergency use authorization ka request jo hai WHO ke saath Technical Considerations pe hote hain aur hum badi carefully follow kar rahe hein ye jo discussions ho rahe hein WHO mein aur hamein poori ummid hai ki Jaldi se jaldi Covaxin ko WHO ki Approval mil jayegi (Answered in Hindi; Approximate Translation) Your question was about Covaxin’s Approval, as you know there is a technical action group of WHO, which is called TAG, this is a regulatory group. They had a meeting on 26th, in that meeting they asked some questions to Bharat Biotech, on which, as we have received information, Bharat Biotech will give all the answers to WHO as soon as possible. I think this Regulatory Group, once their questions are responded well, then Approval for Covaxin should also come immediately. But you should understand that this is a Technical Group, a Regulatory Group, an emergency use authorization request which is on Technical Considerations with WHO and we are following very carefully. These discussions are happening in WHO and we sincerely hope that Covaxin will get WHO approval as soon as possible.
With regard to Nayanima's question on TRIPS waiver, we have advocated for technology transfer and diversification of supply chains and production hubs to ensure affordable and equitable access to COVID-19 disease control tools. I'm happy to share that the G20 has recognised extensive vaccination as a global public good. I mentioned that earlier. And I think that is where a discussion in the G20 will be relevant. Finally, I think Srinjoy’s question on Italy and the issue of Leonardo, it is obviously as you know, there have been some issues because of their listing by our Ministry of Defence. I understand there have been conversations between us and Italy on this, in an attempt to resolve some of the outstanding issues there. I'm sure we'll be seeing more on this as we go along and as we have a meeting with the Italian side.
Cross Border terrorism is an issue that we have raised with all of our bilateral partners and interlocutors, it is a very important issue. It was raised in Washington DC when the Prime Minister was there, and undoubtedly it will be raised with those countries with whom this needs to be flagged.
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Thank you, sir. Yes, please there.
Kalol: Sir this is Kalol from the Hindu. The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is becoming extremely difficult every day. So what is India going to bring to the table as far as Afghanistan is concerned at G20? Is there a near future plan to engage Taliban also in a multilateral manner?
Madhurendra: "Sir, Mein Madhurendra News Nation se, Mera sawal COP-26 ko lekar hai, COP-21 se lekar aur COP-26 tak 5 saal ka waqt nikal chukka hai, lekin Paris convention ko lagu nahin kiya ja saka, doosri taraf global warming lagatar badh rahi hai. Hum ye bhi jaante hein ki jo Kyoto protocol tha 1997 ka, usmein bhi jo terms finalize kiye gaye the use bhi lagu nahin kiya gaya. To kya ummeed rakhi jaye COP-26 se? Kya mana jaye koi iss tarah ka nirnay iss forum pe liya ja sakega, jise poori tarah implement karke jo global warming ke challenges hein aur sustainable development ke challenges hein use poora kiya ja sakega ? Mera doosra sawal G-20 se juda hai, ki hum jaante hein ki aatankwad ka khatra sabse jyada Economic Development ke saamne hein, to kya aapko lagta hai Taliban aur khas taur par Afghanistan se jis tarah ke aatankwad ke roots iss waqt jo develop ho rahe hein us ki charcha hogi, us ko le kar bhi koi thos Nirnay hoga? (Questioned in Hindi; Approximate translation) Sir, I am Madhurendra from News Nation, Sir my question is regarding COP-26, 5 years have passed since COP-21 and COP-26, but Paris convention could not be implemented, on the other hand global Warming is increasing continuously. We also know that the terms which were finalized in the Kyoto protocol of 1997 were also not implemented. So what to expect from COP-26? Is it to be believed that such a decision can be taken on this forum, by implementing it completely, the challenges of global warming and the challenges of sustainable development can be met? My second question is related to G-20, as we know that the terrorism is the biggest threat in the path of economic development, so what do you think about the roots of terrorism which are developing at the moment from Taliban and especially from Afghanistan. Will it be discussed, will there be any concrete decision regarding that too?
Sandeep Dixit: Sir, I’m Sandeep Dixit from the Tribune. First one is on G20, we've been fighting for revision of IMF quotas. So is there some kind of a finality now coming? We got a very small distribution once upon a time and nothing since then. So are we moving on that? And on COP 27, to add to Madhurendra’s question, the developed countries have said that they would be able to raise the 100 billion dollars in financing only after three years. So does that put a dampener on the efforts of developing countries to meet their NDC and meet the technology and other costs for that?
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Last question for the round.
Smita Sharma: Hi, Smita Sharma. Just a follow up on the Afghanistan question other than the G20 forum, given that they're actually facing a famine situation right now. Is India planning to help with any kind of green stocks? and the absence of Xi Jinping, you know, the biggest Co2 emitter, most environmentalists were also surprised that the PM decided to actually be there in person. So how would that impact the absence of the Chinese President on the forum?
Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary: Well I think the humanitarian situation of Afghanistan was asked by more than one of our friends here. G20 under Italian Presidency organised a special summit level meeting on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. As you know, our Prime Minister himself participated in that meeting. I think our position was made clear that while on every issue, we believe that the international benchmark set by resolution 2593 of the UN Security Council has to be met. On the issue of humanitarian assistance, I think we have been forthcoming because we realised that that assistance is for the people of Afghanistan, and Prime Minister did offer to contribute food grains to alleviate that situation. We did say that we would like to see such assistance provided in a direct, unhindered and unimpeded manner, and that its distribution also should be through the UN or other independent agencies. But what is important is that we are alive to the situation of the humanitarian needs of Afghanistan, and we will be responsive to that situation, if the correct circumstances are prevalent in doing so.
I think there was a question on whether Paris commitments are being met, and I think both News Nation as well as Sandeep Dixit had raised issues of financial commitments also, whether those are forthcoming. So in the first place, of course COP21 in Paris did have certain commitments that were to be fulfilled. I'm happy to say that India has been one of the best performers in the G20 as far as meeting commitments are concerned, we are well on our way to meeting our NDC commitments, and even doing better than that. So from our perspective, our commitments have been very much in place. Not only have we committed to NDCs at Paris, we have also made unilateral, I would say announcements that really set the benchmark much higher for us and for other countries. As far as financial commitments are concerned, that is a different issue because while it is correct that $100 billion, as Sandeep mentioned, had been declared as an annual contribution towards climate change efforts I think the problem is that we would like to see such commitments converted into promises. The quantum of such financing is also in our view, inadequate, you need much more financing in order to reach the goals that have been set, the very ambitious goals that we need to collectively meet at a global level in order to achieve the 1.5 degrees that we're talking about. And of course, the means of delivering that financing also has to be made clear. So, green financing, green technology are important factors in enabling the world, particularly developing countries meet their commitments to the goals established under our climate change discussions. This is something that I'm sure will occupy the leaders, will occupy the negotiators, and this is something that we expect to see some outcomes on not only in terms of your commitments, in terms of NDCs at the summit and what is called a sort of review of those commitments in Glasgow, but also, I would say, sort of a review of the financial backstopping that is very important for developing countries, small island developing states, countries like ours that have a very, very, I would say in terms of per capita emissions and in terms of the size of our country, and the fact that we have some way to go before we peak in terms of our own industrial development. That effort that we're making in developmental terms to achieve what is important in climate change terms has to be recognised and has to be supported through appropriate financing and technology that has to be forthcoming from the international community, in particular the developed world has to look at how to make this something that is achievable and realizable, the goals and targets that we set for ourselves.
So let me just try and put it in perspective that we are going to Glasgow with a positive mind-set. India has always approached the issue of climate change in a manner that is constructive. As I said, we have not only set NDCs, we have set targets that far exceed the NDCs by ourselves within our own country. And we have every intention to reach it. I think in terms of our own performances, we have done much better than many other countries. But that is not our gauge our gauge is internal, we want to ensure that we have the conditions that are necessary for us to achieve our own targets, and this is an important objective for us for our own people. But we have also contributed to the global framework in mitigating, adapting the effects of climate change through the International Solar Alliance, through the coalition of Disaster Resilient infrastructure, and building consensus within the global community and how to achieve this. So I think our contribution at Glasgow would be important, and we would certainly want to go there to make the difference. But as I said, we would also expect that there would be commitments that would be forthcoming from those countries that have already peaked some time back, those countries that are occupying a much larger carbon space as it is and who I think would need to see how we can best work together in a spirit of collaboration to achieve our common objective of humanity in meeting our climate change objectives.
I think we did respond to the issue of cross border terrorism. The G20 agenda, of course, is an economic oriented agenda. It is important that the issue of terrorist financing etc. is addressed. But as I said, what is important is to see how issues like corruption, money laundering, tax evasion, these are issues where G20 is most active, and we will certainly be active there. But we will not be falling short in any way on raising issues that are important to us, whether it is the issue of cross border terrorism, whether it is the issue of terrorist financing or any other terrorism related issues that impact the international community, and ourselves.
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Thank you, sir. We'll just take the last set of few questions.
Neval: Sir Neval from Sky News, sir you've talked about NDCs and we're getting to our targets. The big breakthrough is committing to net zero by 2050. Are we looking at India committing to net zero?
S.M.Asif: Mein S.M. Asif, In dino se, mera sawal hai ki Pradhan Mantri ko Italy aur England ke daure ke bich mein kya Indian community ke beech mein bhi koi interaction ki hai Programme. (Questioned in Hindi; Approximate Translation) I am S.M. Asif from In dino, my question is, is there any interaction program between the Indian community during the Prime Minister's visit to Italy and England?”
Elizabeth: I'm Elizabeth with Mint. I just wanted to ask Foreign Secretary since you mentioned that we have bettered our record where the NDCs are concerned. Is it possible that we announced updated NDCs at this conference, especially when you said that we would like to have a constructive approach to the talks.
Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary: Well we have one question on net zero and one question on updated NDCs. But let me start , Pehle aapake prashn ka main javaab doonga. Pradhan Mantri aapako pata hai ki jahaan bhee jaate hain, bhartiye samudaay ke saath jaroor milte hein, aur is baar bhee jab Italy jaenge aur UK jaenge, Glasgow mein jaenge to bhaartiye samudaay ke saath jaroor mulakaat hogi. Covid ke kaaran se restrictions hain to bade meetings ho nahin paenge, par chhote groups mein meetings jaroor honge, aur circumstances ke hisaab se jo meetings ho sakte hain wo jaroor honge, jo mujhe pata hai. (Answered in Hindi; Approximate Translation) I will answer your question first. Prime Minister, you know that wherever he goes, he definitely mees the Indian community, and this time also when he will visit Italy and UK Glasgow, he will definitely meet the Indian community. If there are restrictions due to Covid, then large meetings will not be held, but there will definitely be meetings in small groups. And according to the circumstances, the meetings that can be held will definitely happen, as far as I know.
As far as the net zero that Sky News had asked, you know there is a global net zero and G20 will reflect that concept. And we certainly support a global net zero. Global net zero means that those who have peaked earlier will have to contribute to that those who have larger emissions will have to look at in per capita terms, we'll have to also keep that in mind. But obviously, every country has to make its efforts to reach a global net zero. Whether we will specifically go into that or whether we will have updated NDCs is something that we will have to see. I cannot pre-empt our discussions and negotiations at COP26 at this stage as my objective is only to give you a sense of our outlook, in advance of our participation in these two important summits. What I can only reiterate is that we will go there with a positive mind-set, we will engage proactively on issues that involve climate change. We already have nationally determined contributions that have been registered at Paris, as I said, we almost achieved those targets, we are well on our way to achieving those targets. And we will see whether we need to in any way, review those, but whether it is net zero, or whether it is revised NDCs that's not important, what is important is that we will be a contributing factor in the global discussions at COP26.
Shri Arindam Bagchi, Official Spokesperson: Sir, thank you. Thank you very much Sir for all the details and a lot of questions that you took. We appreciate very much the presence here of Shri Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Foreign Secretary, as well as of Joint Secretary Srinivas Gotru. Thank you for joining us. And stay tuned for further updates as the Prime Minister's visit goes on. And we will certainly share with you both through our video channels as well as our social media, the details of the forthcoming visit.
Thank you again for being here. Good evening.