G20: Visit to Rajghat, more bilateral meetings lined up for today

After a successful first day of the G20 summit, on Saturday, with member nations reaching consensus over many issues, the second day is lined up with series of events including Rajghat visit and world leaders laying wreaths at Mahatma Gandhi's Samadhi. The last session of the summit 'One Future' will follow after the tree planting ceremony at Bharat Mandapam's South Plaza.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to hold bilateral meeting with Canada, the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Brazil, Nigeria and Comoros. He is also set to hold lunch meeting with France President Emmanuel Macron.

Meanwhile, security was beefed up in and around Akshardham temple in the wake of United Kingdom Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s visit on Sunday morning. His wife Akshata Murthy also accompanied him.

On his arrival on Friday, Sunak had said that he is a "proud Hindu" and he is hopeful that he get the oppourtunity to visit the temple. “I am a proud Hindu. That’s how I was raised, that’s how I am. Hopefully, I can visit the Mandir while I am here for the next couple of days. We just had Rakshabandhan, so from my sister and my cousin, I have all my Rakhis… I didn’t have time to celebrate Janmashtami. But hopefully, as I said I can make up for that if we visit a Mandir this time,” Sunak told ANI.

The first day of the G20 summit saw several positive and historic developments including African Union admitted as a permanent member, Economic Connectivity Corridor between India, Middle East and Europe, consensus on Ukraine conflict, and adoption of New Delhi Leaders' Declaration.

The day had concluded with the presidential dinner at the venue of the summit.

The world leaders has called the G20 summit under India's presidency successful. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Saturday said that the G20 summit is "successful" and he is hopeful of inking a free trade agreement with the European Union this year than 2024.

The discussions hit a roadblock after July this year. "I would like to see the Australia EU Free Trade Agreement settled as soon as possible," Albanese said, according to an official press conference transcript.

“It's quite clear with the timetables that are there, that the prospects of that being done are much greater this year than next year, because it does run into elections,” he added.

However, over the consensus reached on the Ukraine conflict, the war-hit country was not happy as the declaration avoided mentioning of Russia.

The Ukrainian government said the statement was "nothing to be proud of".

The Delhi declaration does not directly criticise Russia for the war. Though it talks about the "human suffering and negative added impacts of the war in Ukraine with regard to global food and energy security". The declaration specifies "war in Ukraine" rather than "the war against Ukraine".

"In terms of Russia's aggression against Ukraine, G20 has nothing to be proud of," the Ukrainian foreign ministry tweeted.