Blackfire Posted March 1, 2023 Share Posted March 1, 2023 India has been positioning itself as a leading voice of developing countries known as the Global South in recent years. Now, as president of the G20, Delhi could not have a bigger stage on which to deliver. The world's 19 wealthiest nations plus the European Union account for 85% of global economic output and two-thirds of its po[CENSORED]tion. But as its foreign ministers meet in Delhi, any broader agreements that India hopes to deliver will largely depend on one key factor: the war in Ukraine. When G20 leaders gathered last autumn in Bali, under Indonesia's presidency, Russian missiles hit key Ukrainian infrastructure targets as world leaders sat down for dinner. The joint communique clearly showed differences, with India, China and Russia reportedly not agreeing to unequivocal criticism of the invasion. Not much has changed since then: the war has continued with no sign of peace talks, the world remains as divided, if not more so, and many big economies are still in turmoil. Given this backdrop, it wasn't surprising when G20 finance ministers failed to agree on a closing statement after their meeting in Bangalore (Bengaluru) last week. Both Moscow and Beijing declined to accept parts of a closing statement that deplored Russia's aggression "in the strongest terms". It was left to India to release a chair's summary which noted "different assessments of the situation" in Ukraine within the group. The foreign ministers' talks this Wednesday and Thursday are likely to face similar hurdles. "India is taking its G20 presidency very seriously. So it's going to pull out all the stops to try to make this a successful meeting. There will be a lot of symbolic flourishes. In terms of substance, the Ukraine issue will be looming over everything else," says Michael Kugelman, deputy director at the Wilson Center think-tank. India wants to focus on issues it sees as more urgent for the developing world. It has put climate change, the increasing burden of debt on developing nations, digital transformation, rising inflation and food and energy security on the agenda. Many economies are still struggling to recover from the pandemic and rising prices due to the war have made things worse. Experts say Delhi will need deft diplomacy to somehow make the group look beyond Ukraine - but agreements on issues seen as "low hanging fruit" are thought to be achievable. In that sense, Delhi will hope to use this week's talks to hit the ground running ahead of a leaders' summit in September. "India will try to work out a compromise statement that doesn't fully satisfy anybody, but that everybody can live with," says Jitendra Nath Misra, a former Indian ambassador and now a professor at OP Jindal Global University. "But it's not going to be easy, as countries on either side of the war have only hardened their stands in the past few months." https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-64781836 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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