G20 Foreign Ministers' meet: Food and energy security, counter terrorism on agenda 

40 delegations including 28 Foreign Ministers will participate in the G20 meeting this week. Food and energy security, development cooperation, green growth, gender equality and counter-terrorism will figure prominently on the agenda. The two-day meeting is taking place on the 1st and 2nd of March at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

Among the foreign ministers attending the meeting is US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, James Cleverly from the UK, Sergey Lavrov from Russia, Qin Gang from China and Catherine Colonna from France. External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is likely to hold bilateral meetings with most if not all foreign ministers. The G20 delegates will also be calling on the Prime Minister.

"During the Foreign Ministers meeting, the External Affairs Minister (EAM) will be chairing sessions on multilateralism, food and energy security, templates of development cooperation, new and emerging threats, countering terrorism, narcotics & global skill mapping. The agenda includes inclusive and resilient growth, the entire rubric of green development and sustainable environment, technology transformation, reforming multilateral institutions & issues related to women-led development", said Foreign secretary Vinay Mohan Khwatra.

After the talks on the communique collapsed at the G20 Finance Ministers meeting in Bengaluru, coming to a consensus on the wording of paragraphs on the Ukraine-Russia war will again be a challenge. The Finance Minister issued a chair summary last week after Russia and China refused to allow any reference to the war in the joint statement.

"During the regular foreign ministers’ meeting, we intend to firmly and openly talk about the reasons and instigators of the current serious problems in world politics and the global economy. We will focus on the attempts by the West to take revenge for the inevitable disappearance of the levers of dominance from its hands. We will also concentrate on its striving to continue receiving unilateral rent, in part, through unequal trade and violent interference in the affairs of sovereign states", said the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Ahead of the meeting, the Foreign Secretary said that the Ukraine-Russia war will figure in the discussions.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs Arindam Bagchi said that Russia and China need to explain why they no longer support the Bali declaration. "India's position on the Bali declaration which had paragraphs on the Ukraine-Russia war has not changed", said Bagchi.