(LANKAPUVATH | COLOMBO) – Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe will be among 20 world leaders who will participate in the “Voice of the Global South Summit” (VGSS) next week hosted by India virtually.
More than 120 countries are being invited to the summit to be held on January 12 – 13. The summit will have two sessions for heads of State and government to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra in a media briefing on Friday said the Voice of Global South Summit, with the theme “Unity of Voice, Unity of Purpose”, will bring together countries of the Global South on a common platform to share their perspectives and priorities on a range of issues amid Covid pandemic fallout, global price rise in food, fuel, fertilizers due to Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Other than leaders from the neighborhood, leaders from five countries from Africa (Angola, Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique, and Senegal), three countries from the ASEAN grouping (Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam) will be present, along with leaders of Uzbekistan, Mongolia, UAE, and Papua New Guinea.
The summit will have 10 sessions, with the opening and closing leaders’ session chaired by PM Modi and the remaining eight at the ministerial level. Four sessions would be held on 12th January, and six sessions on 13th January.
The ministerial sessions will be at Finance, Environment, Foreign, Energy, Health, Education, and Trade levels. The theme of the Inaugural Leaders’ session is “Voice of Global South – for Human-Centric Development” and that of the Concluding Leaders’ session is “Unity of Voice-Unity of Purpose”.
The summit feeds into the G20 Summit which India will be hosting later this year in September.
The foreign secretary said India will work to ensure that the valuable inputs generated from partner countries in the Voice of Global South Summit deliberations receive due cognizance globally.
“India’s ongoing presidency of the G20 provides us a special and strong opportunity to channelize these inputs into the deliberation and discourse of the G20.”
India took over the Presidency of the grouping on December 1, 2022, and will host the summit for the first time since the emergence of the grouping after the 2008 financial crisis.
