India to advocate a sense of oneness at G20: Sherpa Amitabh Kant

India will advocate a sense of oneness for all and find solutions collectively with other nations during its presidency of the Group of Twenty, the country’s G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant has said.

“There is a huge challenge before all of us. We are passing through a major geopolitical crisis,” he said while outlining key priorities for the presidency including challenges on climate action and climate finance, as well as challenges of poverty, global debt, literacy and inflation, and slowdown of global growth.

India is hosting the first sherpa meeting under its presidency in Udaipur. Speaking on the sidelines of the four-day meeting that began on Sunday, Kant said the country will also act as the voice for the global south.


“Amid all this, India is taking over the G20 presidency and we believe that every crisis is a huge opportunity and the leadership is about finding path-breaking solutions in the midst of a crisis,” Kant said.

He said the theme for India’s G20 presidency has been chosen as ‘One earth, one family, one future’ because “we believe that everyone is part of one cosmos”. “We may have different political views and different economic models, but we ultimately are part of one single universe and therefore it is necessary to break political boundaries to ensure peace and harmony in the world,” Kant said.

The sherpa meetings will work towards building consensus on key cross-cutting issues, which will be discussed in the various G20 work streams for inclusion in the Leaders’ Declaration, which will be tabled at the G20 Summit in New Delhi next year, Kant said.

Discussions during the Udaipur meeting will focus on economics and finance with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) making a presentation on the global economic scenario, Kant sharing India's priorities before his G20 counterparts, and economic affairs department secretary Ajay Seth highlighting the priorities of the finance track. Leaders of G20 and nine guest countries -Bangladesh, Egypt,

Mauritius, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and the UAE — besides representatives of international organisations are attending the four-day meeting.