With Prime Minister Narendra Modi just returning from the G7 Summit in Italy, Union Culture Minister Gajendra Shekhawat is now likely to travel to the country for the G7 Culture Ministerial meet, where he will participate in a special session on the impact of culture on economies. The ministry has received a formal invite in this regard, The Indian Express has learnt, arguably the first time when the Culture Minister from the country has been invited to participate in the deliberations at the G7 Ministerial. The Culture Ministers Meet will be held in Napoli from September 19 to 21. Besides, other ministers invited this time include the Foreign and the IT Ministers for the respective ministerial meets, it is learnt. A final decision on the participation will be taken by the respective ministries in conjunction with the Ministry of External Affairs. For the culture meet, even as the invite came last month from Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano and was addressed to then Union Culture Minister G Kishan Reddy, Shekhawat will now represent the ministry at the meet, as and when India decides to attend it. The G7 Culture track will focus on “the recovery and regeneration of Ukrainian culture and heritage from the damage caused by Russia’s war of aggression”, as per the agenda documents reviewed by The Indian Express. Also in a first, the G7 framework will address “the issue of culture as a common good of humanity, deliberating on the impact of cultural strategies on sustainable development”. The aim of the ministerial meeting is to build a consensus on the inclusion of culture as a standalone goal in the United Nations development agenda. The priority areas also include some of the topics that India had touched upon during its G20 presidency — including a global fight against illegal trafficking of artefacts. With India becoming the voice of Global South during its G20 presidency last year, its participation has also been sought since the G7 aims to focus on Africa, as to how governments, international organisations and the private sector can come together to support the region in developing its cultural sector and industries. In 2021, under the Italian presidency of G20, there was a declaration calling for recognition of culture and creative economies into policies. However, it was for the first time during the G20 Leaders Declaration in New Delhi last year that there was a call for integration of culture as an enabler towards the achievement of SDGs, and its inclusion as a standalone goal on a post-2030 development agenda.
