India is expected to host the G-20 summit in Delhi, while a number of States including Jammu and Kashmir and north-eastern States have been asked to suggest venues for about 100 “preparatory” meetings expected to be held between December 2022 and November 2023 during India’s G-20 presidency, officials belonging to a number of nodal ministries said.
While a formal notification is yet to be issued about the “summit venue”, the government is likely to hold the G-20 summit, where leaders of the U.S., Russia, China, France, Germany, U.K., the European Union and other top global economies are expected, at New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan complex. Construction for conference halls, and new hotels to house the 20 heads of state and thousands of officials and delegates is already under way, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a nearly ₹1,000-crore Integrated Transit Corridor Project this month to connect the Pragati Maidan headquarters to other key locations, the officials said. However, the officials declined to issue a formal statement, saying it was “too early to discuss the calendar of events and venue” ahead of the summit which was only due to be held around November 2023.
The clarifications came in response to questions being raised over reports in the media about the possibility of holding the summit itself in Jammu and Kashmir. On Wednesday, Pakistan, which had issued a strong protest last week, sent formal demarches to Foreign Ministries in G-20 member-states, asking them not to attend such meetings in what Islamabad described as a “internationally recognised disputed territory” .
