India’s G20 presidency takes place at a particularly crucial time. North-South divides have widened, aggravated by the impact of Covid, conflict, climate events and inflation. East-West polarisation has also been a major factor in global decision making. It is the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the Indian Presidency plays a bridging role in this regard,” said External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar talking exclusively to this writer while responding to the question about the significance of India’s G20 presidency.
New Delhi is all decked up to host one of the most powerful gatherings of the most powerful nations under the chairmanship of India.
Already many heads of states have arrived. American President Joe Biden is arriving Friday.
The big-time decision to skip the G20 summit by President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Xi Jinping of China has been much debated in New Delhi and around the globe.
Their absence has become fodder of many speculations.
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On 6 September, while talking to ANI, Jaishankar commented on the decision of Presidents of Russia and China to not attend the G20 summit, saying that it does not have anything to do with India and it’s not going to impact the final outcome of the multilateral gathering. Jaishankar explained that he “would put it this way, the issues are there (Russia-Ukraine war). These are not issues that are being taken up this morning. I mean there is a whole gestation period of eight-nine months, where at different levels ministers or officials have tried to progress on the issue. There are really about 16-18 processes which are all coming together to be stitched up together to produce a summit.”
India seems to be looking beyond G20 in some respect as it has opened up new path for itself in the last one year under the G20 umbrella. The Indian establishment is focusing on its prime agenda that it was working on since acquiring the chairmanship of G20 from Indonesia last year.
Since taking up the leadership of G20 India has put in huge efforts to take up the issues concerning Global South and held mega summit in January 2023.
Jaishankar, who is walking a tight rope while building the bridges between North and South and developed and developing nations told ThePrint about the priorities India is keeping its focus on while hosting the summit.
Commenting on the significance of the issues related to Global South, the foreign minister said, “Furthermore, the pressing requirements of the Global South should be the core agenda. That is why PM Modi convened the Voice of the Global South Summit and took the initiative to propose membership of the African Union. India is a country with big thinking and a large heart. We want to promote global good through collective action. That is what the G20 is all about.”
The G20 summit of 2023 is happening in New Delhi when the war is on, on the Russia-Ukraine borders and there is no solution in sight. It adds to India’s challenges.
Many Indian analysts have commented that there is a need to analyse how other G20 nations are analysing the absence of presidents of China and Russia. Seeing the range of dynamics involved here there is no surprise that the G20 summit had many challenges.
Already, a range of voices from America and the Western countries have spoken on absence of Xi Jinping from G20 summit. They are lauding India’s efforts to keep the balance and keep up the spirit.
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The joint statement or absence of it or Chairman’s summary will assume significance because India will have to walk the talk.
More so, when Presidents Putin and Xi Jinping are absent, the G20 needs to look into the future with hopes.
India will be under sharp watch when it plays the role of being a balancer, of becoming the bridge of the divided world.
Over to PM Modi.
(Edited by Anurag Chaubey)