Topics of the G20 parliamentary forum in India will be discussed at the Federation Council venue

The ninth G20 parliamentary forum, held on October 12–14 in New Delhi, was held under the motto “One Earth. One family. One future.” The delegation of the Russian parliament was headed by the speaker of the Federation Council Valentina Matvienko, the group of Russian parliamentarians also included the first deputy chairman of the upper house of parliament Andrei Turchak, deputy chairman Konstantin Kosachev and others.

At the forum, Matvienko held negotiations with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the chairmen of both houses of the republic’s parliament and a number of other international negotiations. “I said hi [Моди] from Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, best wishes and our interest in further deepening Russian-Indian relations in various fields. Mr. Modi noted that he is very satisfied with how Russian-Indian cooperation is developing in the field of energy, agriculture and many other areas,” she told reporters.

According to her, Russian-Indian trade turnover has grown 5-fold over the past year and a half from $10 billion to $50 billion. “Mr. Modi said that he would be glad to see Vladimir Vladimirovich [Путина] in India,” added Matvienko.

Chairman of the Lok Sabha (lower house of the Indian Parliament) Om Birla, delivering a welcoming speech at the opening of the summit, urged its participants to continue discussing the main topics of the forum in national parliaments in order to then adopt relevant laws. The event program included four sections in the following areas: sustainable development for the period until 2030, transition to green energy, gender equality and changing people’s lives through public digital platforms.

“We will share our ideas and considerations on these topics, discuss laws, various initiatives and then, I hope, we will pass our own laws in our countries on these topics. Thus, we will build a bright future for the entire population of the world. We expect the Parliamentary G20 to accompany the efforts of the G20 in its parliamentary agenda,” Birla said. The main topics of the G20 parliamentary forum are worthy of discussion in the upper house of the Russian parliament, Kosachev told Vedomosti.

Kosachev himself spoke at the plenary session on the topic “Achieving gender equality: from women’s empowerment to women-led development.” He noted that in 2023, women’s empowerment became a G20 priority for the first time.

“[«Женская двадцатка»] has become an effective communication channel for world leaders and the women’s community, and thanks to its consistent work, it has been possible to advance to a new level,” he said. For several years now, India itself has been ranked first in the anti-rating of the most dangerous countries for women according to the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Turchak, at the session “Changing people’s lives through public digital platforms,” stated the need to support dialogue on international agreements in the field of digital security. “You all know that at the UN, Russia presented a draft universal convention to ensure international information security. This document is aimed at creating conditions for the peaceful use of information technologies, at protecting vulnerable countries from the tyranny of aggressive states and IT giants controlled by them,” said the first deputy chairman of the chamber.

At the end of the summit, a joint final communiqué was adopted, in which the participants declared the inadmissibility of the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons and called on all states to comply with the principles of international law. “Peaceful resolution of conflicts and efforts to overcome crises, as well as diplomacy and dialogue, are critical,” the document says. The next G20 summit will be held in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).