G-20 leaders hold bilateral meetings in India

By Shuriah Niazi

NEW DELHI (AA) - The G-20 leaders held bilateral meetings in India’s capital on Saturday.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak met his Singaporean counterpart Lee Hsien Loong and the two sides signed a new strategic partnership, focused on economy and security.

“This new agreement with Singapore will take us even further in delivering our priorities and ensure that, as we map the future of the world economy, we are doing so alongside our closest partners,” Sunak said in a statement.

In addition to enhanced economic cooperation, the new UK-Singapore Strategic Partnership will strengthen security cooperation, science and technology innovation, and research and development, the statement said.

This includes collaboration to counter new and emerging threats in domains like cyber, through a first of its kind partnership between Singapore’s new Digital and Intelligence Service and the UK, it added.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi also held a bilateral meeting with Sunak on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in New Delhi.

The two sides discussed bilateral relations.

"We discussed ways to deepen trade linkages and boost investment. India and UK will keep working for a prosperous and sustainable planet," Modi said on X about his meeting with Sunak.

Separately, Modi also met with visiting Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

"We took stock of India-Japan bilateral ties and the ground covered during India's G20 Presidency and Japan's G7 Presidency. We are eager to enhance cooperation in connectivity, commerce and other sectors," said the Indian prime minister.

The 18th G-20 Leaders' Summit began on Saturday in India's capital New Delhi under the theme, "One Earth, One Family, One Future."

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed world leaders, including Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as they arrived at the venue for the first day of the summit. The leaders posed for welcome photographs with the Indian premier.

The two-day summit is being held at the newly inaugurated Pragati Maidan conference center at the Bharat Mandapam Culture Corridor, where a statue of Nataraja, the Hindu God of dance, as an important symbol of cosmic energy, creativity and power, is located.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have skipped the meeting. Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez are also among the absentees.

At its core, the G-20 is an intergovernmental forum primarily concerned with economic issues made up of the world’s 20 largest economies – 19 countries and the EU.

It plays an important role in shaping and strengthening global architecture and governance on all major international economic issues.

The member states are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, the UK, and the US.

Besides the members, term president India also invited the leaders of Bangladesh, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Egypt, Mauritius, Oman, Singapore, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates.