G20 – Olivier Becht participating in the G20 Trade and Investment meeting in India (August 22, 2023)

Olivier Becht, Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade, Economic Attractiveness and French Nationals Abroad, attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, will be in Jaipur, India, for the G20 Trade and Investment Ministerial Meeting from August 23 to 25. The ministers will discuss the challenges of digitizing global trade, the mechanisms to be implemented in order to better include SMEs in international trade, and the reform of the World Trade Organization.

Along with his Indian, Australian and Japanese counterparts, the minister delegate will reiterate France’s position on a free, open, inclusive Indo-Pacific. He will follow up on last month’s visit to France by the Indian Prime Minister in his meeting with Piyush Goyal, India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry, with whom he will discuss strengthened economic ties between France and India and efforts under way to enhance the resilience of our supply chains. Lastly, he will meet with Cecilia Todesca Bocco, Argentina’s Secretary for International Economic Relations, to discuss the most important challenges facing our bilateral economic relationship as well as trade negotiations between the EU and the Mercosur countries.

Q&A

The Japanese Prime Minister announced yesterday that treated water from the Fukushima plant would be released into the sea, starting on August 24. What is France’s response?

France has already issued a statement on this topic. In the appropriate fora, we commended the IAEA Director General’s report to the Japanese Prime Minister on July 4. That report concluded that the discharge of tritiated water into the sea is fully consistent with the highest nuclear safety and radioactivity standards. France underscores the Japanese teams’ transparency in their work, which they have carried out in cooperation with the IAEA, and we will continue to support the Agency as it continues its monitoring activities throughout the process.