New Delhi: India will host a senior official-level meeting of G20 culture ministers in Jammu and Kashmir in May, defying objections from Pakistan, which has asked China, Turkey to block the Indian government from hosting any such meeting. and lobbied member-states like Saudi Arabia. In the Union Territory.
Official sources said that in the meeting, senior officials of the G20 and guest countries will discuss the priorities of the Indian presidency, such as the protection and restoration of cultural property, harnessing the living heritage for a sustainable future, promoting cultural industries and safeguarding culture. Leveraging digital technology.
India’s Permanent Representative Ruchira Kamboj told the UN earlier this week that India will host 56 meetings across the country, taking the G20 “from Kashmir in the north to Kanyakumari in the south”. He also said that the G20 meetings under the chairmanship of India will be held in all the 28 states and 8 union territories of India. A meeting related to G20 is also being held in Arunachal Pradesh next week. The US, China and Indonesia held G20 meetings in 12, 14 and 25 cities respectively.
While an official announcement is awaited, the central government last year asked the local administration to revamp Srinagar to prepare for the G20 meeting in the Valley.
For India, the meeting will provide an opportunity to showcase how normalcy has returned to the Valley after the conflict caused by the revocation of the erstwhile state’s special status, and highlight the potential of tourism in the Union Territory. According to sources, the delegation will also visit several cultural places in the region.
Pakistan, however, views any resolution at the G20 meeting in Jammu and Kashmir as designed to gain “international legitimacy” and said last year that member-states should be “fully aware of the imperatives of law and justice”. should be aware of” and should be rejected outright. Islamabad has also sought support from its allies China, Saudi Arabia and Turkey to thwart the move.
In fact, China supported Pakistan when its foreign ministry, responding to a question about the possibility of holding the G-20 in Jammu and Kashmir, urged “relevant parties” to accept any unilateral action in Jammu and Kashmir. Kadam asked to avoid complicating the situation. The G20 was a major forum for global economic cooperation.
“We call on relevant parties to focus on economic reform and refrain from politicizing the relevant issue so as to make a positive contribution to the improvement of global economic governance,” it said then, while China was not involved in such an event. declined to comment on whether he would participate.