The upcoming G20 Heads of State and Government Summit will be the 16th edition of the Summit. In 2020, the Summit was held virtually due to the COVID crisis. The Summit, which is the first-ever physical G-20 summit after the pandemic, will not only have Prime Minister Narendra Modi in participation but also him holding bilaterals with Italy’s leadership on key issues of mutual interest such as mobility of Indians, defence partnership, partnership in sectors such as small and medium enterprises.

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Only last year, India and Italy had entered into 15 Memorandums of Understanding on areas such as energy, media, finance among others.

This will be the eighth G20 Summit attended by PM Modi and the grouping of the world’s 20 major economies has emerged as the main global forum for international economic cooperation. India is scheduled to host the G20 Summit in 2023 for the first time.

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The forthcoming summit under the Italian presidency is centred around the theme “People, Planet, Prosperity” and will focus on recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and strengthening global health governance, economic recovery and resilience, climate change and energy transition, and sustainable development and food security.

COP-26 is being held from October 31-November 12 under the presidency of the UK partnering with Italy.

The high-level segment of COP-26, known as the World Leaders’ Summit, will be held during November 1-2. The summit will be attended by heads of state and governments of more than 120 countries. COP-26 was originally slated to be held in 2020 but was deferred because of the COVID-19 pandemic.