Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
India will take up the issues of climate change and terrorism among others in the G-20 summit to be held in Antalya in Turkey on November 15-16, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today.
In a series of Facebook posts, PM Modi, who will leave for Turkey on November 14 after the completion of his bilateral visit to Britain, wrote that the summit was being held "at a critical juncture, just after the adoption of Sustainable Development Goals agenda at the United Nations, and just before discussions on climate change" at Conference of Parties (COP)-21 climate summit in Paris on November 30-December 1.
"During the Summit, we will review the progress on decisions taken at the (2014) Brisbane Summit and take up issues of climate change, terrorism, refugees, weak growth in global economy, strategies for growth and employment, investment strategies, trade, energy and financial sector resilience," Mr Modi said.
As in 2014, India would focus on mitigating the menace of black money, tax erosion and bringing greater transparency, he said.
"There will be several bilateral meetings too with world leaders on the sidelines of the Summit, which will help deepen our bilateral ties," the prime minister said.
Addressing the media in New Delhi on Friday, Arvind Panagariya, vice chairman of the NITI Aayog and India's sherpa at the G-20 summit, said that Turkey, after assuming the G-20 presidency from Australia in December 2014, had taken growth as a main theme during its tenure.
He said that the G-20 countries had agreed at the very beginning of the Turkish presidency had agreed that the leaders' communique to be submitted after the Antalya summit would be "short and focused".
During Turkey's presidency, meetings of the energy and agriculture ministers of the G-20 countries.
"The energy and agriculture ministers have never met before. This was the first time," Mr Panagariya said.
Another commendable initiative under the Turkish presidency was the addition of the Women-20 (W-20), he said.
"There has been the B-20 (Business-20), C-20 (Civil Society-20), L-20 (Labour-20), T-20 (Thinktanks-20)," he said.
According to Mr Panagariya, since India was the largest recipient of remittances, Prime Minister would seek cutting of transaction cost for money transfer from foreign countries. India received $70 billion in remittances in 2013.
He said that transaction cost, which was around 10 per cent, has come down to 7.5 per cent due to sustained efforts by India. The target is to get to 3 per cent by 2030.
He also said climate change would be part of the final communique that will be issued at the end of the summit.
On IMF quota reforms, he said India could make a strong pitch.
Though growth was usually the main focus of G-20 summits, the issue of fighting terrorism will also be a part of the discussions.
According to Mr Panagariya, a task force on black money and financial terrorism has prepared a report, the recommendations of which will be submitted at the G-20 summit.
On the sidelines of the summit, the BRICS nations -- Brazil, Russia, India, China South Africa -- would discuss the progress of the BRICS bank, he said.