Three major multilateral initiatives—Middle-East infrastructure Corridor, Global Biofuels alliance and scaled up Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII)—will be launched during the G-20 summit tomorrow with possibility of India led global digital public infrastructure “One Future alliance” also making the cut.
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi personally monitoring the preparation of the G-20 summit, the Ministry of External Affairs, G-20 secretariat, Home Ministry, Culture Ministry and others are giving last-minute touches to the preparations for the multilateral summit. Details like silent five-minute video clips on “India-Mother of Democracy” and “India-Moving Forward”, which will be played in a loop at the Leaders’ Lounge of Bharat Mandapam, have been finalized between ITPO, Culture Ministry and the G-20 secretariat.
While the key event today will be PM Modi’s bilateral meeting cum dinner with US President Joe Biden, India along with close allies Saudi Arabia, UAE and the US will launch the Middle-East Infrastructure corridor tomorrow in the presence of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed. The idea of connecting India with the Middle-East through railroad-ports project was discussed between National Security Advisors of the US, India and UAE and under the leadership of Saudi Crown Prince MBS in May in Jeddah. It is understood that at the heart of this initiative is a major connectivity project linking the West Asian railroad network with Indian ports for a more secure and prosperous Middle-East.
The Global Biofuels alliance will also be launched at the summit with the aim of reducing fossil fuel consumption through climate friendly biofuels like ethanol and jatropha. The alliance has the support of the US and UAE with other countries ready to support the India led effort.
The US-led PGII will be scaled up at the G-20 summit to meet the high-quality infrastructure financing in low and middle-level countries. The aim of the PGII, which was discussed at the G-7 summit in Hiroshima this year, is to mobilize financing for delivering energy, physical, digital, health and climate-resilient infrastructure.
The PGII and the Middle-East Infrastructure Corridor are in many ways alternate to China-led opaque Belt Road Initiative (BRI), which is currently struggling due to the inability of recipient nations in Asia and Africa to pay back high-interest loans from Chinese banks.
Lastly, the G-20 summit is expected to record forward momentum on the “One Future alliance”, a voluntary initiative that aims to bring together all the countries and stakeholders to synergize, shape, architect and design the future of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) that could be used by all the countries. As a leader in digital payments, India promoting the DPI and other close allies are expected to join during the summit.
