New Delhi: India, the G20 president for 2023, managed to garner consensus for a joint communique from the ongoing summit after months of gruelling work by sherpas from various countries.
The efforts were aided by negotiators from Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa, who played “liaison” to get all members on board for a joint statement.
Given the difficulty faced by Indonesian negotiators last year and differing views between Russia and the West over references to the Ukraine war, a shadow loomed over this year’s joint document. No ministerial held under India’s G20 presidency so far had resulted in a joint statement.
Unlike the 2022 Bali Declaration, the Delhi statement does not refer to the situation in Ukraine with phrases such as “condemn” or “aggression”. It instead talks about the need to “uphold the principles of international law including territorial integrity and sovereignty, international humanitarian law”, besides the “human suffering and negative added impacts of war” in Ukraine, and G20’s support for efforts to effect “durable peace”.
The G20 New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration also includes some new sections on cryptocurrency and the setting up of a ‘Global Biofuel Alliance’ — something External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said PM Modi came up with himself.
India released the joint communique Saturday. It includes 83 paragraphs agreed to by all G20 member countries.
At a press briefing, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant, who has been the top negotiator from the Indian side, hailed the adoption of the declaration which he said came through “without a footnote”.
Notably, paragraph 33 on debt transparency in the Bali Declaration last year included a footnote stating that “one member” had “divergent views”.
Jaishankar, also present at the briefing, noted that negotiators from Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa helped New Delhi craft the communique.
A source in the South Africa High Commission in Delhi told ThePrint that negotiators from the three countries helped “liaison” with blocs that had differing views — Russia and China versus Western countries.
“Sherpas from these three countries met 2-3 months ago to come up with ways to construct an approach on the declaration,” said the source. “The approach included not singling out any one country like it was done in paragraphs 3 and 4 of the Bali Declaration.”
Paragraph 3 of the Bali Declaration stated that some G20 members reiterated their national positions that deplored “the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine and demands its complete and unconditional withdrawal from the territory of Ukraine”.
Paragraph 4 referred to “defending all the purposes and principles enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and adhering to international humanitarian law, including the protection of civilians and infrastructure in armed conflicts”.
Such wording is missing from the Delhi Declaration.
A source in the G20 Sherpa Office confirmed to ThePrint that work on the text of the joint communique began in March-April this year.
During these discussions, the G20 leaders also focused on how to address pressing issues such as climate change and the need for a clean energy transition that can support sustainable development.
From Monday-Wednesday this week, G20 sherpas were engaged in intense discussions and, according to Kant, were meeting “24 hours a day”.
The source in the South Africa High Commission said that, in the months leading up to the G20 Summit, negotiators from Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa “frequently” engaged with officials from various G20 countries “individually or in small groups to convince them to come along”.
Jaishankar, during his remarks to the press, mentioned that “China was very supportive” of the various outcomes in the declaration. This comes as India and China continue to be engaged in a border standoff. Chinese President Xi Jinping skipped the G20 Summit in Delhi for reasons not in the public domain yet.
French diplomatic sources told ThePrint that this was a “satisfactory” G20 declaration. They added that the language on the Ukraine war met three points that Paris was keen on: recalling the Bali conversation, reference to the UN charter and territorial conquest being unacceptable.
“All this is well incorporated in the text,” said a source, adding that India has assumed “a kind of power” to bring countries together.
Also Read: What businesses need from G20 leaders—driving clean energy transition
What’s different from the 2022 Bali Declaration?
From biofuels and cryptocurrency, to wording on the Ukraine war and a separate section dedicated to terror financing, the 2023 Delhi Declaration includes several differences from the 2022 Bali Declaration.
It also has 83 paras, whereas the Bali Declaration included 52.
On the geopolitical front, India did not mention words “condemning” the Russian invasion of Ukraine, or phrases such as “deplores in strongest terms the aggression” of Russia against Ukraine, as seen in the previous year’s declaration.
With regard to the paragraph on upholding principles of the UN charter, one addition was made: “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.”
The Delhi Declaration says developed countries are expected to make good on their goal of providing $100 billion in climate financing funds to developing countries “for the first time in 2023”.
A commitment was made in 2010 by developed countries to jointly mobilise $100 billion climate finance per year by 2020, and annually through 2025, “to address the needs of the developing countries, in the context of meaningful mitigation action and transparency in implementation”.
Also, while the Bali Declaration did not mention debt treatment for Ghana or Sri Lanka, the Delhi Declaration does. While Ghana, one of the world’s biggest producers of gold and cocoa, is suffering a major economic crisis, the island country of Sri Lanka continues to recover from an economic crisis that began in 2019. Both countries have been forced to knock on the IMF’s door.
On the Black Sea Grain Deal — brokered in 2022 to allow Ukraine to export grain by sea despite the war, but Russia quit the framework in July — the Delhi Declaration specifically mentions Africa and acknowledges the impact the deal’s failed implementation has had on low-income countries relying heavily on Ukrainian grain.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
Also Read: G20 presidency has played the role of a catalyst in 3 shifts, says PM Modi