Understanding India’s G20 presidency
Skilful diplomacy resulted in a consensus building and a clean New Delhi Declaration without any footnotes of dissent.
By Achal Malhotra
The G 20 Summit held in New Delhi (9 -10 September, 2023) under the Presidency of India was preceded by several months of spirited deliberations amongst the G20 members on a plethora of key issues having direct or indirect bearing on global financial health and economic growth and thereby impacting the lives of common human beings. At times it appeared that the geo-political issues will succeed in casting a shadow over the final outcome of the global economic forum. At the end of the day, however, skilful diplomacy resulted in a consensus building and a clean New Delhi Declaration without any footnotes of dissent.
Brief Background
In order to understand the relevance of G20 and the importance of G20 Presidency for India, it would be desirable to briefly trace its origins and subsequent evolution in the midst of one crisis after the other.
The oil crisis of 1975 when some Gulf countries decided to suspend supply of crude oil to USA in view of latter’s support for Israel, led to the emergence of G-7 ( USA, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada and Japan)- an elite gathering of advanced economies which was joined by Russia to make it G-8. The Asian currency crisis of late 1990s with its adverse fall out for several other countries, G8 felt the need to engage key developing and emerging economies also in addressing global financial and economic matters. Hence emerged the G-20 comprised of both advanced and developing/emerging economies to address issue related to the health of global finance and world economy
The Group met several times at regular intervals at the level of Finance Minister’s and Central Bank Governors till the global financial melt down in 2008 prompted the group to raise the level to that of the Heads of State/ Heads of Government . Since then, 18 Summits (including the New Delhi summit) have been held primarily to find ways and means to ensure global financial stability, inclusive economic growth and sustainable development.
Importance of G 20
G20 is a unique inter-governmental grouping which is comprised of both developed and developing countries. In a way G20 is relatively more inclusive and representative. G 20 accounts for 85%of global GDP, 75% of global trade and about two third of world population. With the admission now of African Union (AU) representing 55 countries and 1.3 bn people, its share in global GDP, trade and world population stands considerably enhanced. Critics point out that G-20 stands outside the UN system and its decisions have no legal binding. True to some extent. But in the backdrop of declining effectiveness of the UN system, the decisions taken by the leading economies of the world do carry a significant weight.
The New Delhi G 20 Agenda
Being the G 20 President for 2023, India had the prerogative to set the Agenda and India carefully picked up those issues which are truly global in their dimensions on the one hand and at the same time also reflect the concerns of the global South (poor, least developed, under developed and developing countries).
As reflected in action/the G 20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration, it is apparent that there was a broad consensus on key issues, for instance: climate change/ climate finance , energy security/transition to Green Energy, food and fertilisers security, democratisation of global finance and related to it the reform of multilateral development banks(MDBs), reform of institutions of global governance, cyber security, regulatory mechanisms for crypto currency , terrorism as a global menace and ways to curb terror funding and financing, scaling up of financing from all sources for accelerating progress on achieving Sustainable Development Goals, bridging the digital divide, promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, addressing core issue related to debt vulnerabilities of developing countries, improve access to health facilities and facilitate more supplies and production capacities in poor countries to prepare for any future pandemics.
Geo-politics VS Geo-economics
The G 20 is primarily a grouping meant to work towards global financial security, inclusive economic growth and sustainable development. Geo-political issues and bilateral issues between member-countries have deliberately been kept out of its mandate. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has however changed the scenario. It has led to polarisation pitching the US led NATO against Russia-China duo and their allies. The conflict had cast shadow over the deliberations and outcome of G 20 held in Bali last year. At none of the Ministerial level meetings held in India it was possible to reach a consensus on this issue and resultantly no joint statement could be issues. Instead, there were Outcome Documents (focussing on core economic issues) and a Chairman’s Summary on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. In short, Russia and China (and to some extent India and some other countries) were of the opinion that geo-political issues are outside the domain of G 20, whereas US and European countries stressed that the war was having a direct impact on the economy of several countries, besides creating food and energy insecurities, increasing inflation and causing hardships.
It must be treated as a great achievement for diplomacy that eventually a consensus was reached on the formulation of a suitable paragraph on this contentious issue making it possible for PM Modi to announce the “good news” on the very first day of the Summit.
It has been reaffirmed in the Declaration that “the G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation, and recognizing that while the G20 is not the platform to resolve geopolitical and security issues, we acknowledge that these issues can have significant consequences for the global economy.” Russia has not been mentioned at all, whereas references to Ukraine are contextual. In short a win-win situation for all and loss for none. However, a precedent has now been set for the G 20 members to raise geo-political issues in future if such issues have “ significant consequences for the global economy”.
Major Take Aways From India’s Perspective
The G 20 Presidency has for sure enhanced the stature of India on the global arena. India is now a part of the global “rule makers” rather than “rule takers” and its role in the shaping of global agenda stands strengthened. Further, India has successfully projected itself as a powerful voice of global South. In January 2023, India held a virtual conference of 125 least developed, under developed and developing countries to ascertain their concerns and priorities for placing then on the G 20 forum. India’s potential to bridge the gap between the Global North and Glob South is gaining wide-spread acceptance. G 20 provided an excellent opportunity for show-casing India’s vast diversity and the unity in this diversity and age-old cultural and traditional aspects of the Indian civilisational which is ancient in age and modern in outlook.
G 20 Expansion
With the admission of African Union (AU), the G 20 stands expanded. AU represents 1.3 billion people from 55 countries of African continent, rich in natural resources but amongst the poorest in the word. AU’s admission would enhance the inclusivity of G 20 and also the representation of developing countries. The flip side of the story is that the AU’s admission will numerically tilt the balance in the favour of Global South within G 20. Will that lead to any change in the attitude of Global North? Remains to be seen.
The author is a retired Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer.
