India: Jammu and Kashmir to host G-20 meeting next year

In a significant development, Jammu and Kashmir will be hosting the 2023 meetings of G-20, an influential grouping that brings together the world’s major economies, with the Union Territory government Thursday setting up a five-member high level committee for overall coordination.

This will be the first major international summit to be held in Jammu and Kashmir after the erstwhile state’s special status guaranteed under Article 370 of the Constitution was withdrawn and it was divided into two union territories in August 2019.

In September last year, Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal was appointed as India’s Sherpa for the G20. The Ministry of External Affairs had said that India will hold the G20 presidency from December 1, 2022, and will convene the G20 leaders’ summit in 2023 for the first time.

According to an official order issued on Thursday, the Union Territory’s housing and urban development department principal secretary will be the chairman of the committee which was formed in response to a June 4 communication from the Ministry of External Affairs.

“Sanction is hereby accorded to the constitution of a committee…for overall co-ordination of G-20 meetings to be held in the Union Territory of J&K,”the order issued by Principal Secretary, General Administration Department, Manoj Kumar Dwivedi said. The members of the committee include Commissioner Secretary (Transport), Administrative Secretary (Tourism), Administrative Secretary (Hospitality and Protocol) and Administrative Secretary (Culture).

The G20 member nations are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States.