PM Modi Returns from Johannesburg After High-Impact G20 and IBSA Engagements

Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed back in New Delhi on Monday morning after a high-impact three-day mission to Johannesburg, where he dominated the G20 Leaders’ Summit and co-chaired the IBSA dialogue with Brazil and South Africa, projecting India as an indispensable voice in reordering global institutions and governing frontier technologies in an increasingly multipolar world.

At the G20 plenary sessions, Modi delivered a forceful intervention calling for a binding global compact to prevent the weaponisation, misuse, or monopolisation of artificial intelligence by state or non-state actors, warning that without ethical guardrails, AI could exacerbate inequality, erode sovereignty, and trigger unprecedented security risks, while insisting that technology development must remain human-centric rather than finance-centric to serve the collective good of humanity.

In the closed-door IBSA trilateral with Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Cyril Ramaphosa, the Prime Minister issued an uncompromising declaration that reform of the United Nations Security Council, particularly permanent seat expansion, is no longer a diplomatic aspiration but an urgent systemic necessity, urging the three democracies to jointly amplify the Global South’s demand for equitable representation and the democratisation of institutions still frozen in a 1945 framework.

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Modi hailed the Johannesburg G20 Summit as a landmark achievement that would accelerate sustainable development and inclusive growth worldwide, expressing profound appreciation to President Ramaphosa, the South African government, and its citizens for their exemplary hospitality and flawless organisation, while emphasising that the outcome documents reflected many of India’s priorities on climate finance, digital public infrastructure, and multilateral reform.

Over the course of the visit, the Prime Minister conducted more than twenty high-level bilateral meetings, including substantive discussions with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, Brazilian President Lula, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, and host President Ramaphosa, forging new agreements and deepening strategic convergences that will significantly expand India’s diplomatic and economic footprints across Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas.

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