• PM makes concrete proposals on inclusive development, global health security and drug-terror nexus

Johannesburg. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni during the ongoing G20 summit in Johannesburg. The two leaders discussed various issues while participating in multilateral discussions. Also expressed satisfaction over the deepening of strong India-Italy relations. In the meeting, both emphasized on increasing cooperation in areas like defence, security, trade, technology and clean energy. Along with this, he was also seen meeting with Brazilian President Lula da Silva. Modi hugged Brazilian President Lula during the meeting. President Lula was seen patting Modi’s back. PM Modi was seen talking to the heads of many countries on the first day of the summit.

In the G20 summit held on African soil, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stressed the need to rethink the parameters of global development. Speaking on the theme ‘Inclusive and sustainable economic growth by taking all together’, he said that the G20 may have given direction to the world’s economies, but the current development model has kept large populations away from resources and promoted over-exploitation of nature, the impact of which is felt most in African countries.

In the first session of the G-20 summit on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that there is a need to rethink the parameters of global development and said that the world will have to adopt such a model in which the individual, society and nature are kept in mind together. The Prime Minister proposed the formation of a G20 Global Healthcare Response Team regarding global health security. He expressed deep concern over the growing global spread of drug trafficking, particularly extremely dangerous substances such as fentanyl. Addressing the first session of the G-20 Summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa, Prime Minister Modi said that under the South African presidency, effective work has been done on subjects like skilled migration, tourism, food security, artificial intelligence, digital economy, innovation, and women empowerment.

He said that many historic steps initiated in the G-20 conference held in New Delhi have been taken forward this time. He congratulated South African President Cyril Ramaphosa for the successful organization of the conference. Modi said that due to the development parameters that have been worked till now, a large population has remained away from resources and excessive exploitation of nature has increased, the impact of which has been suffered the most by Africa. He said that India’s civilizational thinking and holistic humanism can show the world the path to balanced development.

The Prime Minister proposed creating a global repository of traditional knowledge under the G-20 and said that India’s Indian knowledge system can become the cornerstone of this global platform. With this, the knowledge of traditional and nature-balanced lifestyle around the world will reach the coming generations. Describing Africa’s development as a global interest, the Prime Minister introduced the G-20 Africa Skills Enhancement Initiative. Under this, working on the trainer-to-trainer model, a target has been set to prepare 10 lakh certified trainers in the next 10 years. These trainers will later provide skills to crores of youth.