Global leaders and heads of government will gather in Paris for a two-day summit for a New Global Financing Pact. The summit, starting on Thursday, June 22, will be hosted by French President Emanuel Macron and it has been co-organised by India and France.
Global leaders, including the Secretary-General of the United Nations, are scheduled to attend the summit. The Paris meeting will serve as a platform to discuss reforms of the international financial system, to tackle present-day challenges of climate change, biodiversity and financial equality.
Many heads of state, ministers, leaders of international organisations, representatives of global financial institutions, and civil society activists are also expected to join the two-day summit.
On the sidelines of the two-day summit,
Sitharaman will have multilateral and bilateral meetings with her counterparts, according to the Finance Ministry.
What is the Paris Summit?
The Paris Summit for a 'New Global Financing Pact' is co-organised by France, India and Barbados. The aim of the Summit is to tackle the challenges of climate change, financial inequality, and biodiversity protection, to help achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The summit also aims to set foundations for a ‘new global financing architecture’ which goes beyond the Bretton Woods system to address these challenges.
The Summit’s purpose is to align various agendas of climate, development, and debt and put forward innovative solutions to the challenges.
According to Reuters, the summit will serve as a platform for world leaders to forge a top-level consensus on how to progress a number of initiatives currently struggling in bodies like the G20, IMF-World Bank and United Nations.
Agenda of the Summit
Issues ranging from debt relief to climate finance will be taken up by world leaders to come up with a solution. The agenda, dubbed as the 'Bridgetown Initiative’, has been drawn up by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley based on the suggestions of the developing countries, Reuters report added.
With an aim to universalise the global financial system, the agenda forms the ideological foundation of the summit and includes proposals formulated by the Vulnerable Twenty (V20) Group of Ministers of Finance of the Climate Vulnerable Forum and the African group of finance ministers.
The core objective is “to build a new contract with the North and the South”, as articulated by the French government.
The main objectives include creating fiscal space, fostering green infrastructure investment, promoting private sector development, and generating innovative financing for climate change vulnerable countries.
The summit will also discuss ways to strengthen financial solidarity with the Global South.
Topics of shipping and carbon tax and ways to achieve the Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) recycling target are likely to be pushed in the summit.
The Paris Agreement may not be binding but it aims at giving a strong political impetus to key issues to be discussed in upcoming climate conferences and other international meetings, according to reports.
Who are the attendees?
Apart from
FM Sitharaman and the French President, the other key attendees of the summit are UN chief Antonio Guterres, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley and European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen.
Leaders from the global south, such as Kenya’s President Ruto and Brazil’s President Lula are also expected to participate, according to reports.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
