Special Meet on G20 Virtual Summit

New Delhi: There will be "excellent attendance" at the G-20 summit in virtual mode to be hosted on Wednesday evening by India and chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the G-20 sherpa Amitabh Kant said at a media briefing on Tuesday evening. He, however, did not list the names of the leaders attending.

According to media reports, President Vladimir Putin is expected to represent Russia at the meeting, while Premier Li Qiang will represent China.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Mr Putin had not attended the on-site G-20 summit in New Delhi on September 9 and 10.

There is no official confirmation on whether Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will participate in the virtual summit, which is being held amid sharply deteriorating bilateral ties.

Mr Kant told the media that "leaders from almost all G-20 countries" will participate in the virtual summit and that New Delhi "looks forward to the detailed deliberations".

The G-20 sherpa said the virtual summit will give "impetus to implementing the September summit outcomes (Delhi Declaration) and share views on critical challenges", adding that it was "rare" that any nation had hosted a summit both in physical and in virtual mode during its G-20 presidency.

Mentioning that about 150 leaders of nations had participated in the two summits -- the Voice of Global South and the G-20 -- so far, Mr Kant said it "demonstrated the power of India" and the leadership of Mr Modi.

In a recent statement, New Delhi had said, "During the closing session of the New Delhi G-20 summit on September 10, the Prime Minister had announced that India will be hosting a virtual G-20 leaders’ summit prior to the conclusion of India’s G-20 presidency... Leaders of all G-20 members, including the Chair of the African Union, as well as nine guest countries and heads of 11 international organisations, have been invited."

The statement said: "It may be recalled that the New Delhi G-20 summit witnessed the unanimous adoption of the G-20 New Delhi leaders’ declaration. The Virtual Summit will take forward key outcomes and action points from the New Delhi summit as well as review developments since then. The deliberations of the second Voice of Global South Summit, held on November 17, will also feed into the discussions."

India's year-long presidency of the G-20 grouping ends on November 30.