"quickly deliver" on debt relief for low and middle income countries.
India's presidency of the bloc comes at a time when neighbouring South Asian countries Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan have sought a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the past year due to an economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war.
Reuters reported last week that India is drafting a proposal for G20 countries to help debtor nations by asking lenders, including China, the world's largest sovereign creditor, to take
a large haircut on loans.
"While thinking about debt concerns faced by countries, it is also important to think about what we can do to forestall them," India's Chief Economic Adviser V Anantha Nageswaran told reporters at a news conference ahead of the G20 meeting.
"So the discussions would be
aimed both at handling them before they arise and after they arise as well."
Other items on the agenda include rules on crypto-currencies, reform of multilateral development banks, international taxation and securing adequate finance to combat climate change, the officials said. During the event, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) plans to hold a
virtual meeting
with the World Bank, India, China, Saudi Arabia, the United
States and other Group of Seven (G7) nations to try to reach
understandings on common standards, principles and definitions
on how to restructure distressed country debts.
India also supports a push by the IMF, the World Bank
and the United States for the so-called Common Framework (CF) -
a G20 initiative launched in 2020 to help poor countries delay
debt repayments - to be expanded to include middle-income
countries.
(Reporting by Sarita Chaganti Singh, Shivangi Acharya and Aftab
Ahmed; Writing by Shivam Patel in New Delhi; Editing by
Christopher Cushing and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
