World leaders attending a Group of 20 summit in Japan are clashing over the values that have served for decades as the foundation of their cooperationPrime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday put forward a five-point approach to address common challenges facing the world, including protectionism, unilateralism at global financial organisations like the WTO and terrorism.
Here are the updates:
Modi, Moon discuss ways to enhance trade ties
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met South Korean President Moon Jae-in and discussed ways to enhance trade, economic and people-to-people relations.
The two leaders met in this Japanese port city on the sidelines of the G-20 summit.
During their meeting, the two leaders expressed mutual desire to synergise India’s Act East Policy with South Korea’s New Southern Policy.
The main focus of India’s Act East Policy is to shift the country’s trading focus from the west and neighbours to the booming South East Asian countries.
The Moon administration’s ‘New Southern Policy’ focuses on South Korea’s development of its relations with Southeast Asia and ASEAN.
“A natural partnership strengthened by historical ties. On the margins of #G20 Summit PM @narendramodi had a good meeting with President of Republic of Korea,” Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar tweeted.
At G20, India stands with developing world, not U.S., Japan, on 5G and data
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other world leaders pose for a group photo with their partners in front of Osaka Castle at the G-20 summit, Friday, June 28, 2019, in Osaka, Japan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Donald Trump came closer to resolving trade issues when they met in Osaka on Friday, but on technological issues such as data storage and 5G network, India ranged itself across the divide from Japan and the U.S., and alongside leaders of BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa).
“We recognise the importance of the interface between trade and the digital economy. We also affirm the role of data for development,” said a statement issued by the BRICS grouping after the meeting. “We are committed to transparent, non-discriminatory, open, free and inclusive international trade. Protectionism and unilateralism run counter to the spirit and rules of the World Trade Organisation [WTO],” it noted.
Briefing the media, Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale underlined the need for framing rules on data within the WTO and not at the G20, running counter to Japan’s initiative as the host of this year’s G20 summit, to push for “Data Free Flow with Trust, (DFFT)”. The initiative for free flow of data, announced by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in January, came after the Reserve Bank of India’s guidelines mandating that the storage of all financial data, including by multinational companies, must be kept on servers in India. The move sparked protests from major companies such as Google, MasterCard, Visa and Amazon and the U.S. called it a major non-tariff barrier, adding to trade tensions between the countries.
Enhancing Indo-German ties
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday met German Chancellor Angela Merkel and discussed ways to deepen the Indo-German relations and enhance cooperation in areas like artificial intelligence and cyber security.
The two leaders met in this Japanese port city on the sidelines of the G-20 summit.
China's Xi warns against protectionism
U.S. President Donald Trump made clear on Friday that trade was a top priority at a summit of leaders of Group of 20 nations, as Chinese leader Xi Jinping warned against rising protectionism and India and Russia defended multilateral trade rules.
Ahead of talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mr. Trump said he would discuss trade, days after criticising the U.S.-Japan security treaty and demanding New Delhi withdraw retaliatory tariffs.
“I think were going to have some very big things to announce. Very big trade deal. Were doing some very big things with India in terms of trade, in terms of manufacturing,” Mr. Trump said at the start of talks with Modi.
Mr. Trump also said he would discuss Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei with the Mr. Modi.
“We actually sell Huawei many of its parts,” Mr. Trump said. “So were going to be discussing that and also how India fits in. And well be discussing Huawei.”
A White House official said Trump wanted to promote to Abe and Modi “a resilient quality secure infrastructure” a reference to the U.S. push with allies to keep the Chinese company out of next generation telecoms networks.
Washington has pressed its allies to shun Huawei in their fifth generation, or 5G, networks on security grounds, but has also suggested it could be a factor in a trade deal with Chinese President Xi Jinping, whom Trump meets on Saturday.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker flagged the shadow cast by the U.S.-China trade feud.
“The trade relations between China and the United States are difficult, they are contributing to the slowdown of the global economy,” he told a news conference.
Mr. Xi also warned about the protectionist steps he said some developed countries were taking.
“All this is destroying the global trade order... This also impacts common interests of our countries, overshadows the peace and stability world wide,” Xi told a gathering of leaders of the BRICS grouping of nations on the sidelines of the G20 meet.
Defending world trade rules
Mr. Modi at the same meeting called for a focus on reforming the World Trade Organization and Mr. Putin decried what he called efforts to destroy the Geneva-based body.
“We consider counter-productive any attempts to destroy WTO or to lower its role,” Mr. Putin said.
Modi puts forward 5-point approach to tackle unilateralism, protectionism
Speaking at the informal BRICS leaders’ meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit, in Osaka, Mr. Modi said that there was an immediate need to strengthen the WTO, fighting protectionism, ensuring energy security and work together to fight terrorism.
“Today I will focus on three major challenges. First, the recession and uncertainty in the world economy. Unilateral decisions and rivalries are overshadowing rule-based multilateral international trade systems,” Mr. Modi said.
“On the other hand, the lack of resources is reflected in the fact that there is a shortage of an estimated USD 1.3 trillion in investment for emerging market economies,” he said.
He said making development and progress inclusive and sustainable is the second major challenge.
“Rapidly changing technologies such as digitisation and climate change are concerns not just for us, but also for the future generations. Development is in the right direction when it reduces inequality and contributes to empowerment,” the Prime Minister said.
Modi, Trump discuss Iran, trade and defence
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday held talks with U.S. President Donald Trump and discussed various bilateral and global issues including Iran, 5G communications networks, trade and defence ahead of the G-20 Summit.
Mr. Modi thanked Mr. Trump for expressing his “love towards India” in a letter recently delivered by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
The Prime Minister said that he wants to discuss Iran, 5G, bilateral relations and defence ties with Mr. Trump.
UN chief urges G20 to make equitable financial reforms
The U.N. chief is urging G-20 leaders to take action on equitable and stable reforms to strengthen the global financial safety net and increase the global economy’s resilience.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a letter to leaders gathered in Osaka, Japan, for the two-day summit beginning Friday that while the world has made progress fixing some big problems it’s not happening fast enough or shared by all countries.
Mr. Guterres said that while there are good plans and vision, what’s needed are “accelerated actions, not more deliberations.”
(With inputs from agencies)
