In a major deviation from earlier times, the much-publicised bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama is unlikely to happen on the sidelines on the 10th G20 summit in Turkey.
This is because both leaders recently spoke on the newly set up ‘hotline’ and discussed all issues of bilateral importance, with a special focus on climate change conference in Paris and WTO ministerial meet in Kenya, both of which will take place in December, official sources told the BusinessLine .
During the phone call, which took place a day before Diwali, Modi and Obama took stock of the “joint efforts on key areas of bilateral cooperation and to preview global issues ahead of the upcoming G-20 summit, East Asia Summit, and Paris Climate Conference,” stated a White House press release.
The release also said that both leaders shared their perspectives on developments in South Asia and discussed the progress made on shared economic and security priorities, including implementation of the Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region and addressing the global challenge of climate change.
Meanwhile, officials in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) maintained that both sides are now “actively working” on the decisions taken at the recently concluded Indo-US Strategic and Commercial Dialogue.
At the G20 summit, India is expected to strongly urge member countries to join the Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) initiative under the aegis of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and take up the issue of maintaining the development agenda under the Doha Round of talks at the upcoming ministerial meeting of the WTO in Nairobi.
According to OECD estimates, BEPS method will impact over 9,000 firms across the world.
BEPS helps introduce common taxation standards and prevent tax evasion by multinational corporations.
“There is a fear that the developed countries might demand wrapping up of the Doha Round in this ministerial now that they got what they wanted by way of the trade facilitation agreement. But we cannot let that happen and that is what the PM is going to strongly pitch for,” a senior MEA official said.
Modi will go straight from the UK to attend the summit in Antalay, Turkey on November 15-16. He is expected to hold bilateral meetings with some of the other leaders of G20 countries. On top of the list are Turkey, France, Germany and Japan.