E-Paper
History@G20: We do declare
Charting a middle way between the western bloc and Russia on the contentious issue of the war in Ukraine, an issue that had led to a lack of consensus in all G20 meetings in the past 10 months, the declaration firmly positioned India as a reconciler of global contradictions Modi pulls off a massive victory for India’s presidency as members come together to adopt the Delhi Declaration in the true spirit of one earth, one family, one future
The Indian Presidency of G20 delivered the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration, carving out a consensus at a time of deep geopolitical fracture between the East and West and developmental divide between the North and South, and marking a moment that will go down in history as arguably India’s greatest foreign policy accomplishment in a global forum.
Soon after the second session of the first day of the G20 Summit commenced on Saturday afternoon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, without any warning, “Friends, we have just got good news. With the hard work of our teams, and with the cooperation of you all, there is consensus on the New Delhi G20 Summit Leaders Declaration.”After proposing it be adopted, Modi said: “I announce that this declaration is adopted.” He then banged the gavel three times and thumped the desk as other G20 leaders — together representing the largest economies — clapped loudly, even as the world outside took a moment to absorb the scale of the unexpected achievement.
Charting a middle way between the western bloc and Russia on the contentious issue of the war in Ukraine, an issue that had led to a lack of consensus in all G20 meetings in the past 10 months, the declaration firmly positioned India as a reconciler of global contradictions. By incorporating all the key priorities of the Indian Presidency, it catapulted New Delhi as a global rule-shaper. By ensuring that it had both weaved together the issues that pertained to the anxieties and aspirations of the developing world in the final document, and enhancing their representation in the grouping, India became a voice of the Global South.
And it did so in style. A Presidency marked by an unprecedented democratisation of foreign policy as the representatives of the group travelled to every state of the country over the past 10 months saw its crowning moment at a grand venue, Bharat Mandapam, in the national capital where a majority of world’s most powerful leaders congregated.
Addressing a press conference soon after Modi’s announcement and the release of the declaration, the PM’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said, “The New Delhi leaders’ declaration has 83 paragraphs in all. All 83 paras have 100% consensus across all countries.” He added there were eight paras on the geopolitical issue entitled planet, people, peace and prosperity. “All those eight paras have 100% acceptance...This is one declaration without a single footnote and without any chair’s summary.”
Kant was referring to Ukraine, where the Indian Presidency pulled off an unlikely balancing act in bringing adversaries on the same page. The text recognised the immense human suffering caused by wars and conflicts in general and it reaffirmed the principles of the UN charter, principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty and need for peaceful resolution of conflict, all of which was mentioned in the last G20 leaders’ declaration in Bali.
But given the Russian and Chinese objection to carrying forward the same text, and the West‘s insistence on the inclusion of the war in Ukraine in the document, India found a way. The declaration allowed states to reaffirm their national positions but reformulated the key paragraph to avoid making a specific reference to Russia’s aggression. Instead, it read, “All states must refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition against the territorial integrity and sovereignty or political independence of any state.” It then went on to outline the adverse economic consequences of the war for the world, particularly the vulnerable, it called for the full implementation of the Black Sea Grain Deal, it called for “relevant and constructive initiatives” for a “comprehensive, just, and durable peace”; and it ended with Modi’s message to Russian President Vladimir Putin last year: “Today’s era is not the era of war”.
That breakthrough allowed the Indian Presidency to push a range of its priorities in the text, accommodating the concerns of the weaker and vulnerable states in the international order and the weaker and vulnerable citizens in the world. “‘No one left behind’ has become a goal for foreign policy as much as domestic policies,” said external affairs minister S Jaishankar, whose ministry played a key role in reconciling contradictions between major players by leveraging its independent relationship with each of them, and combing idealism with hard-nosed realpolitik.
Jaishankar also said that G20 had made India ready for the world, and the world ready for India.
Under the Indian presidency, the African Union became the newest permanent member of G20, dramatically expanding the voice of a continent that had gone inadequately represented in the group. This spirit of inclusion found its way through the letter and spirit of the text. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the G20 India Presidency had been able to adopt “people-centric, action-oriented and far-sighted approach”. “So today, as I look back at the 10 months of Indian Presidency, I am left with gratitude and satisfaction. I can confidently say that Indian G20 Presidency has walked the talk,” the foreign minister said.
Among the highlights of the declaration include a global consensus on the broad idea of digital public infrastructure (DPI) as a central tool in enabling inclusion and growth, and a recognition of India’s pioneering role in this regard. It includes a green pact that declares the ambition of net zero emissions by 2050 and lays out the financial needs of developing countries to meet the target. It adopts the principles to make Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) an everyday, every person movement.
The Delhi Declaration moves the needle decisively on the long vexed issue of reform of multilateral development banks (MDBs), by recognising the importance of expanding the mandate of the World Bank to include climate while battling poverty and suggesting innovative ways of finding additional resources to finance the new mandate. The Indian presidency has also succeeded in enabling the management of the debt crisis in four countries, Zambia, Ghana, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka. It has made the regulation of crypto assets a top issue in the global conversation, while, for the first time, bringing in the issue of the responsible use of articulate intelligence on to the agenda of the G20.
Commenting on the significance of the Delhi Declaration, veteran Indian policymaker NK Singh, who was also the co-convenor of the expert group on MDB reform and thus watched the process closely from inside, said, “This has shown that the Indian leadership has the ability to transform the impossible into possible, to balance contradictions into global advantage, and demonstrate that whereas politics is the art of possible, leadership is the art of the impossible.”
He added that the fact that India had been able to pull off successfully a Delhi Declaration spoke volumes about the Indian leadership’s “sagacity, preparatory work, team spirit, cohesiveness, ability to convert contradictions into consent and convert asymmetries into symmetry”. And this, he said, was done by ironing out the differences in an extraordinary short period of time. “The achievement highlights not only our continued political leadership and the global recognition of this leadership but also the new aura that surrounds the arrival of India on the global stage in its own right in the matrix of global decision-making.” India had arrived, he said, on the high table.
