This study aims to enhance the understanding of the genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes (T2D) susceptibility by conducting a trans-ethnic genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis. The meta-analysis includes data from four major ethnic groups: European, East Asian, South Asian, and Mexican and Mexican American. By combining the published meta-analyses, the study identifies seven novel T2D susceptibility loci and demonstrates significant excess in directional consistency of T2D risk alleles across ancestry groups. The findings highlight the benefits of trans-ethnic GWAS for discovering and characterizing complex trait loci and emphasize the potential to extend insights into the genetic architecture and pathogenesis of human diseases across diverse populations. The study also shows improvements in fine-mapping resolution of common variant association signals at several T2D susceptibility loci through trans-ethnic meta-analysis, even without GWAS data from African ancestry populations. These results underscore the importance of including multiple ancestry groups in GWAS meta-analyses to improve the discovery and understanding of complex trait loci.This study aims to enhance the understanding of the genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes (T2D) susceptibility by conducting a trans-ethnic genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis. The meta-analysis includes data from four major ethnic groups: European, East Asian, South Asian, and Mexican and Mexican American. By combining the published meta-analyses, the study identifies seven novel T2D susceptibility loci and demonstrates significant excess in directional consistency of T2D risk alleles across ancestry groups. The findings highlight the benefits of trans-ethnic GWAS for discovering and characterizing complex trait loci and emphasize the potential to extend insights into the genetic architecture and pathogenesis of human diseases across diverse populations. The study also shows improvements in fine-mapping resolution of common variant association signals at several T2D susceptibility loci through trans-ethnic meta-analysis, even without GWAS data from African ancestry populations. These results underscore the importance of including multiple ancestry groups in GWAS meta-analyses to improve the discovery and understanding of complex trait loci.