The G20 Summit- 2023 was held in New Delhi from September 9 to 10: the eighteenth in sequence since its inception in 1999 and the first to be held in India. It was presided by Prime Minister Nrendra Singh Modi; India being the President of the Group from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023. Indonesian President Joko WI dodo preceded Modi in this role and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will succeed him; due to their respective country’s G20 presidency during that period i.e. 2022 and 2024. The theme of this year’s summit was ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ (One Earth, One Family, One Future), which according to the host country ‘affirmed the value of human, animal, plant, and micro-organisms and their inter-connectedness on planet Earth and in the wider universe’. The Summit itself was basically ‘the climax of the G20 process and work carried-out over the year through Ministerial Meetings, Working Groups and Engagement bodies’. Two significant members of the Organization: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping decided not to attend the meeting personally due to their own individual reasons; a development which dwindled the hype created by the host country. Consequently, Russia was represented by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and China by Prime Minister Li Qiang.
The Government of India wanted to organize the occasion impeccably therefore an impressive budgetary provision of $120 million was made by it. Security was the particular concern due to violent unrest in various parts of the country thus 130,000 LEA’s personnel were deputed to ensure smooth conduct of the summit. The demolition of slums in and around New Delhi and the eviction of homeless from the area was noticed and condemned by the world media. All commercial and educational activity remained at halt in the Indian capital for complete three days. The social movement seriously suffered due to traffic hazards caused by police-created barriers and bottlenecks. The strictness of the measures can be gauged by the fact that even the e-commerce deliveries, except medicines and essential groceries, were prohibited.
During the 2-day conference, three main sessions with separate themes i.e. One Earth, One Family, and One Earth were held. The deliberations primarily revolved around (i) accelerated, inclusive and resilient economic growth (ii) reviewing and pushing progress on SDGs (iii) environmental issues, green development and climate finance (iv) technological/digital transformation and its management (v) health conditions and improvement measures; and (vi) creation of multilateral institutions for the 21st century. International taxation; gender equality and women empowerment, and; counter- terrorism plus anti- money-laundering measures also came under discussion. Prime Minister Modi presented his concept of ‘Lifestyle for Environment’ (LiFE) which emphasized environmentally sustainable and responsible actions both at the individual and national level, with the aim of achieving a cleaner, greener, and bluer future. Prime Minister of Japan Fumio Kishida stressed the need for a treaty on ‘plastic pollution’ for reducing it to zero by 2040 as per spirit of ‘Paris Agreement-2015’. A lot of time was consumed on discussing Russian aggression against Ukraine and its increasing adverse impact on the world economy. India’s proposal that ‘African Union’ (AU), a continental body of 55 states, may be included in the Group was approved. Another development took place on the side-lines of the summit wherein the US, India, Saudi Arabia and the European Union announced construction of a communication network, mainly comprising of railways and shipping infrastructure, to enhance trade between South Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The plan was considered as a move to counter China’s ‘Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
A detailed consensus statement was issued at the end of the Summit wherein the conference was declared successful from all angles. However, a large section of world media considered it ‘disappointing’ due to summit’s failure to address the two main issues adequately i.e. Ukraine crises and climate change disaster. According to the critics, most of the current global woes are creation of these dilemmas and G20 was expected to come-up with convincing solutions particularly when the UNO is plunged into a ‘discouraging paralysis’. The Russian invasion of Ukraine was mentioned in a milder tone than the statement issued after the last year’s G20-Summit at Bali, Indonesia. Though the declaration condemned ‘human suffering and adverse repercussions of the conflict on global food and energy security’ however it did not directly criticize Russia. The Ukrainian government declared it totally ‘unsatisfactory’ and ‘nothing to be proud of’. Then, despite the recent devastating succession of climatic tragedies, the declaration failed to mention the objective of phasing-out ‘fossil fuels’ though the environmental scientists consider this to be the only response capable of reversing the aggravating situation.
The political analysts are not pleased with PM Nrendra Modi’s conscious efforts to ‘overshadow’ the G20 proceedings and use it for ‘domestic political gains’. Megha Bahree of ALJAZEERA vide her report of September 11, called the two-day summit as ‘one-man show’ and obviously that man was Nrendra Modi. The editorial of ‘Le Monde’ (Paris) dated September 17 remarked that the G20-Summit at New Delhi ‘was a profitable affair for its organizer’ as ‘PM Modi had persuaded Indonesia to swap for 2022 in order to stage this prestigious gathering as close as possible to India’s general elections, scheduled for 2024. He has already taken, and certainly continues to take, good advantage of this opportunity, using to play on national pride’. The BBC NEWS commented on September 12 that ‘PM Modi had wanted the summit to promote his country as a major global power, and himself an important world leader, ahead of general election due in spring 2024’ and he greatly succeeded in that. The ‘TIME’ issued on September 6 out-rightly proclaimed that ‘Modi politicized India’s G20 presidency to achieve domestic political gains’.
The international media also took notice of President Xi Jinping’s decision to skip the event especially when it was for the first time since his assumption of power in 2012. Mostly it was suggested that Xi wanted to snub the host country i.e. India with which his country is embroiled in serious border disputes. Some speculate that it was a part of the policy to demote US-dominated forums like G7 and G20; and promote non-western groups such as BRICS. Wen-ti-Sung, a Chinese IR expert views that it was to avoid meeting Japan’s PM Fumio Kishida at the height of ‘propaganda war’ between Beijing and Tokyo on the issue of ‘waste-water release’. The ‘Guardian’ dated September 17 claimed that it was an ‘act of solidarity’ with the Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who also abstained from the conference. Professor Alfred Wu of National University of Singapore believes that Xi was reluctant to travel abroad due to concentration on pressing domestic concerns. All these appraisals must be partially true but the fact that they all played role in the decision though in various degrees.
The absence of President Vladimir Putin was also questioned. Nonetheless, Putin’s non-attendance was much lesser enigmatic than Xi’s because since the beginning of Ukraine War he has avoided appearance in international gatherings including G20-Summit at Bali in 2022 and recent BRICS conference at Johannesburg. This policy has been adopted to keep away from Western leaders who have been out-and-out supporting Ukraine and have imposed several hard-hitting sanctions upon Russia.
The crux of the matter is that PM Nrendra Modi took the G20-presidency as an opportunity to expand the global stature of India and eventually extract political benefit from it during upcoming ‘Lok Sabha’ elections in April/ May 2024; and he availed the chance to the maximum. The absence of Russian and Chinese Presidents and criticism on summit’s outcome did reduce the impact of event however Modi’s ‘media blitz’ was able to cover it. The episode also affirmed that India is on which side of the global political wrangling.
The Last Word: Pakistan should re-design its internal and external policies; off-loading the baggage and considering the hard realities.
