Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be travelling to South Africa this weekend for the Johannesburg G20 summit that US President Donald Trump has decided to skip over differences with the host country on the agenda and alleged mistreatment of white people in the Rainbow Nation by the Cyril Ramaphosa government.
The external affairs ministry late Wednesday evening confirmed Modi's participation in the 20th G20 Leaders' Summit.
He is slated to speak in all three sessions: Inclusive and Sustainable Economic Growth Leaving No One Behind: Building our economies; the role of trade; financing for development and the debt burden; A Resilient World — the G20's Contribution: Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change, Just Energy Transitions, Food Systems; and A Fair and a Just Future for All: Critical Minerals, Decent Work, Artificial Intelligence.
Modi had avoided the last two multilateral platforms where the US President was present — the Asean summit in Malaysia and Trump's Gaza Peace Summit in Egypt — resulting in speculation that the Prime Minister was trying to avoid a meeting with the American leader till the India-US trade deal is finalised.
According to Reuters, Trump has rejected the host nation's agenda for the November 22-23 summit of promoting solidarity and helping developing nations adapt to worse weather disasters, transition to clean energy and cut their excessive debt costs.
This is the first time a G20 summit is being held in Africa. Trump wants South Africa out of the G20 and all other such groupings. Since the G20 is not a grouping created by a treaty, member countries are admitted by consensus and can be removed in the same manner, resulting in Russia remaining in the G20 despite calls for its expulsion over the Ukraine war.