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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday made a renewed push for expansion of the UN Security Council and reforms in all global institutions to reflect the world’s “new realities”, as the G20 summit drew to a close with the US, Russia and France praising the meeting outcomes under Indian presidency.

Marking the ceremonial transfer of the rotational G20 presidency, Prime Minister Modi handed over the gavel to Brazilian President Luiz In cio Lula da Silva, who hailed India for giving voice to topics of interests of emerging economies. Lula also said the UNSC needs new developing countries as permanent and non-permanent members to regain political strength and greater representation for emerging countries at the World Bank and the IMF.

In his concluding remarks at the final session of the two-day G20 summit, the prime minister also proposed a virtual session of the G20 around the end of November to take stock of the suggestions and decisions made by the leaders of the major developed and developing countries here. The 55-country African Union was also granted permanent membership on Saturday in a milestone for India’s presidency.

“With this(proposal), I declare the G20 summit as closed,” Modi said.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi handing over the G20 ceremonial gavel to Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Image credit: PTI

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African Union becomes permanent member of G20 under India’s presidency

Modi, who noted that India’s presidency of G20 would officially continue till November 30 and that over two-and-half months were left for its tenure as the head of the grouping, cited a Sanskrit shloka to pray for hope and peace in the entire world.

Official sources, meanwhile, said the text relating to Russia-Ukraine conflict in the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration is a “convergent consensus” rather than a “divisive consensus” and it could show a path to resolution of the crisis, a day after a breakthrough on the contentious issue was achieved to help the G20 leaders come out with a 37-page Declaration marking a huge diplomatic win for India.

India achieved ‘100%’ consensus on developmental and geo-political issues in the Declaration, which avoided mentioning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and made a general call to all states to follow the principle of respecting each other’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.

US President Joe Biden said the New Delhi summit has proven that the grouping can still drive solutions to its most pressing issues.

He made the remarks in a post on X as he left for Vietnam after he and several other G20 leaders paid homage at Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial Rajghat in the morning.

“At a moment when the global economy is suffering from the overlapping shocks of the climate crisis, fragility, and conflict, this year’s Summit proved that the G20 can still drive solutions to our most pressing issues,” Biden said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the G20 Summit under India’s presidency was a “breakthrough” conclave in many ways as its outcomes showed a path to the world to move forward on a range of challenges and demonstrated the strength and importance of the Global South.

After a luncheon meeting with Prime Minister Modi, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters that considering the current fragmented environment, India has done well as G20 president.