India overrides objections by Pakistan, to host G20 meet in J&K

INTERNATIONAL DESK: India will host a senior official-level meeting of G20 culture ministries in Jammu and Kashmir in May, overriding objections by Pakistan which had lobbied member-states like China, Turkiye and Saudi Arabia to prevent the Indian government from hosting any such meeting in the Union territory.

Official sources said the meeting will see senior officials of G20 and guest countries discussing Indian presidency priorities like protection and restitution of cultural property, harnessing living heritage of sustainable future, promotion of cultural industries and leveraging of digital technology for protection of culture.

India’s permanent representative Ruchira Kamboj told the UN earlier this week that India will host 56 meetings across the length and breadth of the country, taking G20 from “Kashmir in the north to Kanyakumari in the south”.

She also said that under the Indian presidency G20 meetings will be held in all 28 states and 8 union territories of India. A G20-related meeting is taking place in Arunachal Pradesh too next week. The US, China and Indonesia had held G20 meetings in 12, 14 and 25 cities respectively.

While an official announcement is awaited, the union government had last year asked the local administration to prepare for a G20 meeting in the Valley by giving Srinagar a facelift.

For India, the meeting will offer an opportunity to show how the situation in the Valley has normalised after the strife caused by the revocation of the special status of the erstwhile state and to underscore the potential for tourism in the union territory. According to sources, the delegates will also visit several cultural hotspots in the region.

Pakistan, however, sees any proposal for a G20 meeting in Jammu and Kashmir as designed to seek “international legitimacy” and said last year that the member-states should be “fully cognizant of the imperatives of law and justice” and reject it outright. Islamabad has also sought support from its allies China, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye to scuttle the move.

China, in fact, seemed to back Pakistan when its foreign ministry, responding to a query about the possibility of a G20 event in Jammu and Kashmir, asked “relevant parties” to avoid complicating the situation in Jammu and Kashmir with any unilateral move, saying G20 was a premier forum for global economic cooperation.

“We call on relevant sides to focus on economic recovery and avoid politicising the relevant issue so as to make a positive contribution to improving the global economic governance,” it had said then, while refusing to comment on whether China will participate in such an event. (TIMES OF INDIA)