G20 SUMMIT-A BRIEF

The 12^th G20 Summit between World leaders took place at Hamburg, Germany, from 7-8^th July 2017, on the theme “Shaping an Inter-connected World”. The Summit was held amidst wide protests from civilians dressed as zombies and processions clashing with the Police, leading to much violence including torching of cars on the street, pelting of stones, and use of water cannon by Police.

The Summit was concluded with the participant countries agreeing on themes like keeping the markets open, focusing on reciprocity and non-discrimination, fight protectionism and unfair trade practices. Though the Summit came a few weeks after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the Paris Convention on climate change, the Summit theme also considered climate change as a central consideration during the course of discussions. The leaders also touché upon the issue of terrorism, and promised to take steps to further counter-terrorism measures and stop funding from flowing to pro-terrorist groups. While the Indian PM Mr. Narendra Modi made indirect remarks regarding Pakistan’s alleged support to terrorist organizations operating from the land, the G20 leaders urged internet services to filter their content and monitor the use of communication systems in spreading terrorism across the globe. They also talked about enhancing cooperation between border agencies to detect travels and commutes of terror groups and radicals; and better exchange of information between intelligence agencies, law enforcement and authorities. Though the India-China border stand-off at Sikkim led to the China stating that “the atmosphere was not right for a bilateral meeting between China’s Xi Jinping and PM Narendra Modi; the two met on Friday informally exchanging pleasantries and best wishes to each other on endeavors like economic and social development and the upcoming BRICS Summit in China.

Note(Indian Kanoon): G20 comprises of 19 countries and the European Union, represented by the European Council. The member countries are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the UK and the US.