India Will Host G-20 Summits In Ladakh

The Center has proposed holding these sessions in the c of Ladakh as well, days after China and Pakistan expressed their opposition to India’s decision to host preparatory discussions for the G-20 summit in Jammu and Kashmir next year.

The government’s suggestion to hold the discussions in the Union Territory is likely to be viewed as a slight to China, whose troops have been engaged in a border stalemate in eastern Ladakh since May 2020.

On December 1 of this year, India will take over as the G-20’s president. S Jaishankar, the minister of external affairs, will go to Bali, Indonesia, in order to attend the G-20 foreign ministers’ conference on July 7 and 8.

The nominations of Divisional Commissioner Saugat Biswas and Leh-Kargil Range DIG Junaid Mehmood as nodal officers to collaborate with the Ministry of External Affairs, which houses the G-20 secretariat, have been approved by Ladakh’s Lt Governor R K Mathur.

To plan the G-20 meetings that will take place in the UT, the J&K administration on June 23 established a five-person team under the direction of the Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department.

Pakistan responded angrily to India’s suggestion to host the international grouping’s preliminary meetings in J&K in 2023, saying that it hoped the group’s members would be fully aware of the needs of law and justice and reject the plan altogether.

Later, China expressed its disapproval of the Indian government’s action, stating that “relevant parties should avoid further complicating the situation with the unilateral step.”

The former state will host this event for the first time since August 2019, when J&K lost its special status and was split into the Union Territories of J&K and Ladakh.

Along with the European Union, the US, UK, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, and Turkey are also members of the G-20, which brings together the world’s main economies.