India, that currently holds the Presidency, is preparing for the G20 Summit in full swing. The G20 Summit 2023, to be hosted on September 9-10, will be attended by many world leaders and dignitaries, including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and more.
As evident, the G20 Presidency is a prestigious honour and responsibility. But how is the Presidency of G20 decided and how did India get the presidency?
To begin with, one must know that the Group of Twenty G20 grouping was formed in 1999 to act as a forum for international economic cooperation following the Asian financial crisis. It was a forum for finance ministers and central bank governors to discuss financial and economic issues.
In this, the role of the Presidency is to bring together the G20 agenda for the development of the global economy, in consultation with other members. India was given the Presidency on December 1, 2022 and India will continue to hold the presidency till November 30, 2023.
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The Presidency of the G20 grouping rotates among five groups of member countries. Each country from a group becomes eligible for the Presidency when it is the turn of the group. The eligible countries negotiate and determine the group’s Presidency.
The G20 Presidency decides the agenda for the year and hosts the summit too. It must be added that the presidency is supported by the ‘Troika’ – the previous, current, and upcoming Presidency.
The upcoming Presidency is of Brazil. Hence the Troika right now comprises India, the current Presidency, Indonesia, the former Presidency and Brazil, the upcoming Presidency.
For the uninitiated, the G20 consists of the Finance and Sherpa tracks. The Finance Track is led by the finance ministers and central bank governors, while the Sherpas or emissaries of the state leaders, lead the Sherpa Track.
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Within these tracks, representatives of relevant ministries as well as invited or guest countries, as well as various international organisations participate in thematically oriented working groups. The Ministry of Finance leads the Finance Track, and the Sherpas discuss agenda items for the summit and coordinate the substantive work for the G20.
There are engagement groups too that bring together different sections including women, youth, labour, businesses, researchers, civil societies and parliamentarians.
The G20 includes 19 countries – Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, United Kingdom and United States – and the European Union. The grouping represents around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.
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