Queen Máxima plans 2-day trip to India to discuss G20 agenda
Queen Máxima will visit India on Aug. 29-30 in her role as UN Secretary-General's Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA) and as Honorary President of the G20 Global Partnership for Inclusive Financing (GPFI). There, she will discuss financial inclusion and a digital economy as India prepares to take over the G20 presidency from Indonesia, the Dutch Royal House announced.
In India, the Dutch queen will speak with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Reserve Bank of India governor Shaktikanta Das, as well as meet the G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, according to the Dutch Royal House. The queen will also meet with representatives from the public and private sectors about creating a digital public infrastructure for the safe use of financial services: for example, secure digital payments and biometric identity cards.
India will assume the G20 presidency on Dec. 1, 2022. The country is currently developing new ways to connect its population to digital financial services, including the "India Stack" initiative of recent years.
It is not yet clear if Maxima will raise the issue of the kidnapping of Insiya Hemani during her visit to India. In April 2022, Queen Máxima and King Willem-Alexander received Indian President Ram Nath Kovind and his wife in the Netherlands to celebrate 75 years of friendship between the two countries. During that time, the Dutch queen promised to raise the subject of kidnapped Insiya –– a Dutch citizen who was abducted from Amsterdam by her father and smuggled to India as a 2-year-old –– to the Indian president.
