G20 Summit 2023: India approved PM guided Secretariat for G20 presidency

India will hold the G20 presidency from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023, culminating with the G20 Summit in India in 2023. A PM guided Secretariat has been approved by the Union Cabinet which will oversee the implementation of overall policy decisions and arrangements.

G20 Summit 2023: The Union Cabinet on February 15 approved the setting up of a G20 Secretariat for steering the upcoming G20 Summit which will be held in India from 1 December 2022 to 30 November 2023.

The Secretariat which will be functional till February 2024 is tasked with the implementation of overall policy decisions and arrangements.

India was originally expected to chair G20 in 2022 - the 75th year of Indian Independence. It, however, arranged a swap with Italy, which was to be the chair in 2022 but agreed to take on the presidency in 2021. During the G20 Summit in November 2020, India made another swap with Indonesia, which took the presidency for 2022.

"As per practice, a G20 Secretariat is being established to handle work relating to substantive/ knowledge/content, technical, media, security and logistical aspects of India’s G20 Presidency. It will be manned by officers and staff from the Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Finance, and other relevant line Ministries/Departments and domain knowledge experts," a government notification said.

An Apex Committee headed by Prime Minister Modi, Finance Minister, Home Minister, External Affairs Minister, and G20 Sherpa (Commerce & Industry, Textiles, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Minister - Piyush Goyal) will guide the G20 Secretariat to provide overall guidance to India’s forthcoming G20 Presidency.

A Coordination Committee will soon be set up by the government to oversee the G20 preparations and report to the Apex Committee.

"The G20 Secretariat will enable long term capacity building, including knowledge and expertise, for India’s leadership on global issues in multilateral fora," the official announcement stated.

About G20

Founded on 26 September 1999, G20 is an intergovernmental forum that addresses global economic issues such as financial stability, climate change mitigation, and sustainable development.

The aim of G20 is to "bring together systematically important industrialised and developing economies to discuss key issues in the global economy".

It is composed of 19 countries and the European Union-- Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The current chairperson of G20 is Indonesian President Joko Widodo.