G-20 development ministers meet in Varanasi from today

India will host development ministers of G-20 countries in Varanasi from June 11 to 13 with a goal to collectively agree on actions for accelerating achievement of the SDGs and fostering synergies between development, environment and climate agendas while avoiding costly trade-offs that hold back progress for the developing countries.

External affairs minister S Jaishankar will chair the meeting, which is being held under India's G-20 presidency. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will deliver a special video address at the beginning of the meeting.

The meeting takes place amidst mounting developmental challenges that have been further aggravated by economic slowdown, debt distress, impact of climate change, pollution and biodiversity loss, growing poverty and inequality, food and energy insecurity, cost-of-living crisis, global supply-chain disruptions, and geopolitical conflicts and tensions, officials said.