President Alberto Fernández will warn this Saturday against food and energy insecurity facing the planet, will insist on the need to re-discuss the international financial system and will warn of the environmental challenges and consequences of climate changespeaking for the final time to his G20 peers at the summit between Saturday and Sunday in New Delhi, India.
Fernández arrived in New Delhi on Friday and spent the day refining the two speeches he will deliver this Saturday to his G20 peers and organizing the bilateral meetings he will hold on the sidelines of the summit.
Arrival and greetings
With a small entourage and under oppressive heat, Fernández arrived at dawn this Friday (Thursday evening in Buenos Aires, 8 and a half hours difference) and I stayed at the Pullman hotel, located in an area called Aerocity, very close to the airport and far from the city center, a kind of neighborhood farm. with luxury hotels and restaurants.
“We arrived in New Delhi, India, to participate in the #G20 summit, ‘One land, one family, one future,'” Fernández wrote in a message posted on his social media account X, in which he illustrates his arrival in the country. Asian nation with a photo of his plane exit with Chancellor Santiago Cafiero.
“Multilateral development that benefits our country is built on dialogue and cooperation. “We are going to deepen these key areas of our foreign policy,” noted the head of state in his publication.
We arrived in New Delhi, India 🇮🇳, to participate in the Summit of #G20“One land, one family, one future.”
Multilateral development that benefits our country is built on dialogue and cooperation. We will deepen these key areas of our foreign policy. pic.twitter.com/wXXgJhJ39Q
– Alberto Fernández (@alferdez) September 8, 2023
Meanwhile, the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi also welcomed the arrival on social media to the country of the Argentine President and said: “India is pleased to welcome you, President Alberto Fernández. We look forward to your enlightening views during the proceedings of the G20 Summit.”
India is pleased to welcome you, President @alferdez. Looking forward to your insightful views during the G20 Summit proceedings. https://t.co/59WibQyKv8
—Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) September 8, 2023
The delegation accompanying the President is made up of Chancellor Cafiero; the Ambassador to the United States and Sherpa of the G20, Jorge Argüello, and the Secretaries General of the Presidency, Julio Vitobello, and of Communication and Press, Gabriela Cerruti.
The president traveled for nearly 24 hours, stopping in the South African city of Johannesburg, and used Friday to recover from jet lag and finish polishing speeches and bilateral talks he will have on Saturday.
An armored New Delhi
The Argentine delegation arrived in an armored city with strict security measures: In Aerocity, where other leaders are also staying, long-armed soldiers are seen in the streets.
For this same security reason, the city of New Delhi – where 20 million inhabitants live – is experiencing severe restrictions on movement and Supermarkets, schools, offices, restaurants and shopping centers remain closedwhile the public highway is full of colorful posters welcoming the G20 delegations with the photo of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the foreground.
Streets almost deserted by their usual inhabitantsfew and empty public transport, and a great predominance of motorcycles and the famous tuk tuk -or also called rickshaw-, a motorized tricycle vehicle, widely used in different Asian countries, completed the urban panorama.
The venue for the summit will be the Pragati Maidan exhibition and convention center, inaugurated in July with a budget of $330 million and covering an area of almost 500,000 square meters, which includes a press center that will receive three thousand journalists . From all over the world.
Without Putin or Xi
The summit will take place between Saturday and Sunday without the presence of the Russian and Chinese presidents, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, and amid strong gaps between bloc countries on issues ranging from the war in Ukraine, the functioning of the global financial system and the restructuring of foreign debts.
“It’s a strange G20, the absence of Russia and China is not a minor fact, which undoubtedly has to do with the question of war,” assesses the Argentine delegation.
The axes of the speeches
The Argentine president’s stay in New Delhi will be short and intense given that on Saturday he will make two interventions of three minutes each before the leaders of the G20, the first in the morning (at dawn in Buenos Aires) when he will speak at of the session “A land.”
It will be the most important speech, in which he will reiterate – as he has done in different forums – the need to reform the system international financial systemHe will insist to the reduction in IMF surchargeswill warn of the consequences of climate change and will once again plead for countries indebted to financial institutions to be able to reduce their debt commitments in exchange for concrete actions meeting environmental objectives, returning to the concept of “environmental creditors”.
Likewise, he will warn in his speech on the food and energy insecurityinformed Télam from official sources, which, with Infobae, are the only two Argentine media to cover the presidential tour.
Also Mention will be made in the in-person speech of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.a question which generates divergences in the drafting of the final document of the summit which will be announced on Sunday.
And he will add to the message a request for the incorporation of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) into the G20 as a permanent member, as will be debated during this Delhi summit on the African Union.
The second session “A family” will focus on sustainable development and Fernández will talk about the progress and challenges ahead in terms of human rights and gender equality in the countries that make up the bloc.
India has ‘almost ready’ draft G20 declaration, awaiting country approval
The Gobierno de India indicates that there is a “casi list” of the owner with the one that aspires to log a common message at the end of the world, weighs the differences that exist due to key positions in the war in Ukraine and the responsibilities to fight climate change.
The host country’s top negotiator, Amitabh Kant, confirmed at a news conference in New Delhi that the final statement that will be “recommended” to leaders during the two days of discussions this weekend is almost complete.
It is up to heads of state and government to “accept” it or not, which is why Kant recognized that only then will the potential achievements of the summit be confirmed.
As expected, the text includes the voices and needs of the South, which India has been working to defend since assuming the G20 presidency last December and which, in three months, will move to Brazil .
“The challenge is to reach consensus on all issues. Each country has the right to veto,” the negotiator acknowledged in statements reproduced by local channel NDTV, given the obvious differences that exist within the bloc.
The condemnation of the war is precisely the greatest obstacle to obtaining a consensual final declaration, obtained last year at the summit in Bali (Indonesia), with waters shared between the Western powers represented at the G20 by the leaders of the United States (Joe Biden), United Kingdom (Rishi Sunak), France (Emmanuel Macron), Germany (Olaf Scholz), Italy (Giorgia Meloni), Canada (Justin Trudeau) and the Union European Union (Ursula von der Leyen) and the position that they defend Russia and China.
One of the facts on which there seems to be agreement is the confirmation of the future entry of the African Union into the G20, a bloc that represents 55 countries on the continent.
Currently, the only regional organization that is part of the G20 is the European Union (EU), although leaders of countries that hold the pro tempore presidency of different international forums are usually invited.
Bilateral meetings and busy schedule
On the other hand, Fernández has on the agenda bilateral meetings with the presidents of the Republic of Korea, Yoon Suk Yeol; of United Arab EmiratesSheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and with the Prime Minister of the People’s Republic of BangladeshiSheikh Hasina, while finalizing the schedules with the Prime Minister of IndiaNarendra Modi and his pair of BrazilLuiz Inácio Lula da Silva, whose country will assume the presidency of the G20 in December.
During these bilateral meetings, the theme of Argentina’s recent integration into BRICS, the group of emerging countries that make up Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, will be present.
Another important point highlighted by the Argentine delegation is that this is the first time that the G20 has a “troika” made up of emerging countries: Indonesia in 2022, India in 2024 and Brazil in 2024.
“This represents an unprecedented continuity of emerging countries at the forefront of the forum, which offers the opportunity to give visibility to the priorities of the countries of the South, including those of Latin America and the Caribbean,” emphasize the sources.
Another activity planned for this Saturday is a meeting with members of the Global Biofuels Alliancein which Argentina, Brazil, India, Italy, Mauritius, South Africa, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Canada, Bangladesh and Singapore participate.
This Saturday he will also offer interviews to local media and, in the evening, he will attend the gala dinner offered by Indiawhile on Sunday, leaders are invited to the placement of a wreath at Mahatma Gandhi monumentand the last plenary session during which the final declaration will be adopted, which is currently being debated by the sherpas of the delegations.
After the last bilateral meetings, the Argentine president I will come back the same Sunday afternoonand will fly directly to Santiago, Chile to attend events on Monday commemorating the 50th anniversary of the coup d’état led by Augusto Pinochet against the socialist president at the time, Salvador Allende.
His last intervention at the G20 summit before ending his term will take place in New Delhi, a visit with which he will begin an international trip that will keep him on a busy schedule throughout September, which includes visits to Chile, Cuba and the United States. .
The sources also confirmed that Between October 10 and 18, Alberto Fernández will tour Chinajust before the presidential elections.
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