G20 Religion Forum

Topic- International Organizations [GS Paper-2]

Context- In a first of its kind event, Indonesia is going to host a global summit of religious leaders modelled on the G20 forum called the G20 Religion Forum.

Key Highlights 

• The first summit of G20 Religion Forum is scheduled on November 2 and 3, 2022, in Bali, Indonesia as a parallel event to the annual G20 summit that Indonesia will host for 2022.
• G20 Religion Forum will be organised and hosted by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), which is one of most influential Islamic think tanks of Indonesia.
• The R20 aims at facilitating harmonious relations between religious groups and to open new hopes for reconciliation, brotherhood and peace.
• The R20 this year will focus on four major topics i.e. 
  • Historical grievances, truth-telling, reconciliation and forgiveness;
  • Identifying and embracing values shared by the world’s major religions and civilisations;
  • Recontextualisation of obsolete and problematic teachings of religion; and
  • The values we need to develop to ensure peaceful co-existence.

G20 Forum

• The G20 forum was established in 1999 during the financial crisis of the late 1990s that hit East Asia and Southeast Asia in particular.
• The objective of it is to secure global financial stability by involving middle-income countries.
• Together, the G20 nations include 60% of the world’s population, 80% of global GDP, and 75 % of global trade.
• Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States and the EU are the member nations of G20.
• Spain is acting as a permanent guest to G20.
• The presidency of the G20 rotates every year among members, and the country holding the presidency, together with the previous and next presidency holder, forms the ‘Troika’ to ensure continuity of the G20 agenda.
• Currently Italy, Indonesia, and India are the Troika countries and Indonesia holds the current Presidency.
• There is no permanent secretariat of G20. 
• Hence the agenda and work are coordinated by representatives of the G20 countries, known as ‘Sherpas’, who work together with the finance ministers and governors of the central banks.
• The primary mandate of the grouping is to establish International Economic cooperation with particular emphasis to prevent future financial crises across the world.
• It also plays a significant role in shaping the global economic agenda.

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