International Summits and Conferences 2021-22

The list of important summits and conferences are given below:

1. Association of Southeast Asian Nation (ASEAN) 2021

 The 38th ASEAN Summit is scheduled to be conducted in April 2021 and the
39th in November 2021. The Summit will be hosted in Brunie, Bandar Seri
Begawan under the leadership of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.

ASEAN Summit 2020

 The 37th meeting started on 12th November 2020.

 It was a virtual meeting that was presided by Viet Nam Prime Minister against
the backdrop of COVID-19 pandemic.
 Theme – Cohesive and Responsive ASEAN

Read more about ASEAN in the linked article.

2. BRICS Summit 2020

 It is the 12 BRICS Summit

 It was held virtually due to the outbreak of COVID-19 on 17th November 2020.
 It was scheduled to take place in July 2020 in Saint Petersburg (Russia.)
 Theme – BRICS Partnership for Global Stability, Shared Security and
Innovative Growth

Read more about BRICS at the linked article.

3. G-20 Leaders’ Summit 2021

 G-20 Leader Summit 2021 will be hosted in Italy, Rome under the leadership
of Giuseppe Conte on 30-31st October 2021.

G-20 Leaders’ Summit 2020

 G20 Leaders’ Summit 2020 was held virtually on 20th and 21st November
2020 and was presided by Saudi Arabia.
 Theme: Realizing Opportunities of the 21st Century For All
 G20 Leaders’ Summit 2021 is scheduled to take place in Italy.

Learn more about G20 and list of its summits in the articles linked below:

G20

G20 Talks on Economic Crisis: RSTV

 List of G20 Summits

4. G7 Summit 2021

The 47th G7 summit is intended to be held during the summer of 2021 in the United
Kingdom.

G7 Summit 2020

 The G7 Summit 2020 was scheduled to take place in the US from 10th to 12th
June 2020, however, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has
been cancelled.

Read more about G7 in the linked article.

5. Southasian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC Summit 2020)

 The last SAARC summit was held in 2014. Subsequent SAARC summits have
been cancelled.
 On 24th September 2020, foreign ministers of SAARC countries met at an
informal meeting on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA.)

Read more about SAARC at the linked article.

6. India Science Congress 2021

Pune hosted the 108th Indian Science Congress in January 2021.

Indian Science Congress 2020

 It took place between 3rd and 7th January 2020 at Bengaluru (Karnataka.)
 It was the 107th Indian Science Congress.
 The theme was ‘Science & Technology: Rural Development’

7. Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2021

The SCO- Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit 2021 will be chaired by

Tajikistan in Dushanbe. The date of SCO Summit 2021 is yet to be announced.

Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit 2020

 The SCO Summit 2020 was held virtually on 10th November 2020. Read RSTV
Big Picture’s take on SCO Summit 2020 in the linked article.
 It was chaired by Russia.
 Theme – Reformed Multilateralism

Read in detail about the SCO in the linked article.

8. East Asia Summit 2021

16th East Asia Summit 2021 will be hosted in Brunie, Bandar Seri Begawan under the
leadership of Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah

East Asia Summit 2020

 The 15th East Asia Summit was held virtually on 10th November 2020.
 It was chaired by Veit Nam Prime Minister.

Read in detail about the East Asia Summit (EAS) in the linked article.

9. Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit 2021

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern will host the 33rd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) Summit 2021 in November in Newzealand, Auckland.

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit 2020

 It was held virtually on 21st November.

 It was chaired by the Malaysian Prime Minister.
 Theme – “Optimising Human Potential Towards a Resilient Future of Shared
Prosperity: Pivot. Prioritise. Progress”.

Read in detail about APEC in the linked article.

10. BIMSTEC Summit 2020

 The 5th BIMSTEC Summit that was scheduled to take place in December 2020
has been cancelled. It was scheduled to take place in January 2021.

Read BIMSTEC-related topics from the links provided below:

BIMSTEC RSTV: BIMSTEC

BIMSTEC vs. BIMSTEC Disaster Management

SAARC Exercise 2020

11. Nuclear Security Conference 2021

International Conference on Nuclear Materials and Nuclear Security is scheduled in

March 25th and 26th, 2021 to be hosted in Madrid, Spain

Nuclear Security Conference 2020

 It took place from 10th-14th February at Vienna, Austria.

Read more about Nuclear Security Summit in the linked article.

12. OPEC Summit 2021

 The latest summit – 179th OPEC Conference (2020) was held virtually on 6th
June 2020.

Learn more about OPEC in the linked article.

13. NATO Summit 2021

 The latest meeting of NATO took place on 3rd and 4th December 2019 in
United Kingdom (UK.)
 Theme – 70 Years of NATO.

Learn more about NATO at the linked article.

14. Earth Hour 2021

Earth Hour 2021 is scheduled to take place on March 27th, 2021.

Earth Hour 2020

 It took place digitally on 28th March 2020.

 The theme was, ‘Climate Action and Sustainable Development.’

15. NAM Summit 2021

Azerbaijan will hold the NAM presidency for 3 years until the 19th summit in
2022. 18th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement was held October 25 and 26, 2019
in Baku.

NAM Summit 2020

 It was held online on 4th May 2020.

 It was chaired by Azerbaijan’s President.
 Theme – “United against COVID-19”

Read in detail about Non-Alignment Movement (NAM) in the linked article.

16. CHOGM Summit 2020-21 (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting)

 It was scheduled for 26th and 27th June 2020 but was cancelled due to
COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.
 CHOGM Summit 2021 will now take place on 21st June 2021. Rwanda will
chair the CHOGM Summit 2021.

17. Indo-Africa Summit 2020

 It was a virtual summit that was held in February 2020.

Read about India-Africa Relations in the linked article.

18. COP26 – UNFCCC (2021)

COP26 – UNFCCC, scheduled to take place in November 2020 got postponed due to
COVID-19 and now will take place in November 2021 from 1st to 12th.

COP25 – UNFCCC (2020)

 The 25th COP to UNFCCC met on 2nd to 3rd December 2019 in Madrid, Spain.
 Chile presided over COP25.

Read more about COP25 in the linked article.

Objective type questions based on these important Summits and Conferences have
been asked multiple types in the prelims examination and constitute an integral part
of the UPSC Syllabus. Thus, candidates must read about each of these in detail for a
comprehensive understanding.

International Summits 2019

The list will be updated for 2021 summits as and when they will take place.

Name of Aim/ Theme Summit held at

organizati of summit
on/ 2019
grouping

Association “Advancing 35th ASEAN

of Partnership Summit 2019 –
Southeast for Thailand,
Asian sustainability. Bangkok.
Nation ”

BRICS Economic 11th BRICS

Growth for an Summit 2019-
Innovative Brasilia
Future’.

G-20 8 themes of 14th G 20 Summit

G 20 Summit 2019 – Osaka,
– “Global
 Economy”, Japan
“Trade and
Investment”,
“Innovation”,
“Environment
and Energy”,
“Employment
”, “Women’s
empowermen
t”,
“Developmen
t” and
“Health”.

G-7 “fighting 45th G7 Summit

income and 2019 – Biarritz,
gender France
inequality
and
protecting
biodiversity”

South Asian _ 19th SAARC

Association Summit 2019 –
for Regional canceled. 20th
Cooperation SAARC Summit
2020 to be host in
Islamabad

Indian “Future India: 106th Indian

Science Science and Science Congress
Congress Technology” – Lovely
Professional
University,
Phagwara, Punjab.

Shanghai — 19th SCO summit

Cooperation 2019- Kyrgyzstan
Organisatio capital, Bishkek
n
East Asia — 14th East Asia
Summit Summit 2019 –
Thailand,
Bangkok

Asia Pacific “Connecting APEC Summit

Economic People, 2019 – Santiago,
Cooperation Building the Chile
Future”

BIMSTEC – 5th BIMSTEC

Summit 2019 –
Srilanka (to be
held)

Nuclear “Towards 12th NSS 2019 –

Security New National New Delhi
Summit Cyber
Security
Strategy”

OPEC ‘Petroleum – 7th OPEC

cooperation International
for a Seminar – Vienna,
sustainable Austria
future’

NATO – NATO Summit

2019 – United
kingdom, London.
(to be held in
December 2019)

Earth Hour “Reduce, Global earth hour

Reuse, 2019- Australia
Change the
Way We Live”
NAM “Upholding 18th NAM summit
Summit the Bandung 2019 was held in
2019 Principles to Caracas,
ensure Venezuela.
concerted
and adequate
response to
the
challenges of
the
contemporar
y world”.

CHOGM Delivering A CHOGM 2019

Summit Common Meeting –
Future: Rwanda
Connecting,
Innovating,
Transforming’

Indo-Africa “India and 4th Indo-Africa

Summit Africa: Forum Summit
Deepening 2018 – New
the Security Delhi. This
Engagement” Summit is held in
every 3 years

COP – COP 25th 2019-

(UNFCCC) Madrid, Spain (to
be held in
December)

World ‘Shaping 7th World

Governmen Future Government
t Summit Governments Summit- Dubai
’

Maritime Regional Regional Maritime

Summit maritime Safety Conference
safety 2019 – Mumbai
 HEMCE- “Exploring 12th High Energy
High Energy the innate Materials Confere
Materials inclusive nce 2019 – IIT
Society of potentials of Madras, Chennai,
India high energy India.
materials”

3rd Asian Tiger New Delhi

Ministerial conservation
Conference
on Tiger
Conservatio
n