Jaishankar welcomes foreign delegates at G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar welcomed foreign delegates to the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Thursday (G20FMM). Jaishankar welcomed US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, in Delhi.

He also welcomed Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, Argentina’s Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero, Mauritius Foreign Minister Alan Ganoo, South African Foreign Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor, and Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Alvarez. It is worth noting that this is Jaishankar’s first meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Qin.

Jaishankar was also greeted by German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farha, UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and Japan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kenji Yamada.

Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Center will host the G20 FMM. Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, European Union, France, Germany, India as host, Indonesia as immediate past president and ASEAN chair, Italy, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, UK, US (all G20 member countries) are among the 40 delegations expected to attend.

Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain, and the UAE are among the nine guest countries participating at the FM level. This will be India’s second ministerial meeting under its presidency. Bengaluru hosted the first ministerial meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors.

According to Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra, it is the largest gathering of Foreign Ministers hosted by any G20 presidency. The EAM will preside over two foreign ministries’ meeting sessions at the Foreign Ministers’ meeting on Thursday.

“The first session will focus on multilateralism, and issues related to food and energy. The second session will focus on four or five key issues including new and emerging threats including counter-terrorism and narcotics, global skill mapping, and focus on global talent pools,” said the foreign secretary.