India’s G20 Leadership Will Require a Delicate Balancing of Priorities Among Member States – The Diplomat

The Pulse | Diplomacy | South Asia

The warfare in Ukraine uncovered the fragility of peace but additionally of meals and power safety. For the West, the fragility of European safety took heart stage, whereas for the creating world, the uncertainty of meals and power entry garnered pressing consideration. This yr’s G-20 summit in September in New Delhi is poised to replicate loads of the worldwide division and variations in priorities between the West and creating nations. 

Western nations, corresponding to america, are more likely to emphasize the Russia-Ukraine warfare greater than different points. In the meantime, India’s focus is more likely to embody different long-term points that disproportionately impression creating nations, a dedication Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirmed in his speech to the G-20 ministerial gathering. Rising geopolitical impasses may stall significant multilateral motion from the upcoming summit. 

As such, how ought to India go about reaching its G-20 agenda and what sort of accomplishments can we anticipate to see?

Total, the G-20 summit may present the perfect platform for India to set the tone for its rising world management and talk what duties it desires to bear beneath that management. Whereas acquiring the G-20 presidency alone will not be essentially an indication of affect, the sorts of points India chooses to interact in will decide the nation’s capability to point out efficient management on the G-20.

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Modi’s announcement of the G-20 theme, “One Earth, One Household, One Future,” is a sign of India’s try and unite the G-20. Of this bold agenda, digitalization and meals safety are two focus areas that India shouldn’t solely prioritize however are areas the place India will be capable of showcase its personal progress.

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As Western nations endure a large digital transformation, creating nations danger being left behind. The Modi authorities understands the urgency of digitalization and might encourage different creating nations to be self-sufficient and bold towards their targets for digital transformation in addition to meals safety. India can spotlight its advances, such because the Nationwide Digital ID program and India Millet Initiative and provide creating nations a hit story to encourage them to undertake comparable practices. Because the world’s most populous nation, India’s biometric distinctive identification system is a very highly effective demonstration of how creating nations can reap the benefits of digitalization to drive social innovation. Moreover, India can use the worldwide momentum gained after the U.N. introduced 2023 as “the yr of millets” to encourage the usage of millets as a standard answer for meals safety, particularly within the creating world.

Main the G-20 this yr means holding the eye of nations that account for 85 % of world GDP, 75 % of worldwide commerce, and two-thirds of the world inhabitants. Whereas final yr’s G-20 summit in Bali addressed a number of points necessary to the creating world, the Ukraine warfare dominated discussions. To drive the G-20’s consideration to issues disproportionately impacting the creating world, Modi must emphasize, significantly to Western nations, that these points will now not be sidelined on the worldwide stage. 

This yr, Russia and China will attempt to steer the dialog away from the Ukraine warfare, as evidenced by their rejection of parts of a closing assertion criticizing Russian aggression in Ukraine on the G-20 Finance assembly. Whereas there will not be consensus on Ukraine, the G-20 can nonetheless produce vital outcomes relating to digitalization and meals safety, two world and important points.

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India must present that its newfound function because the International South’s voice can coexist with its rising alliance with the West. A belligerent China has aligned India and america on extra fronts than earlier than. India is forging robust relationships, such because the Quadrilateral Safety Dialogue, the Quad, with navy and financial powers that can invariably have completely different priorities than creating nations. India now has an opportunity to construct upon the momentum generated ultimately yr’s G-20 summit to push not just for the International South’s management, but additionally a rebalancing of priorities amongst G-20 members.

India’s G-20 presidency, nonetheless, is not going to be with out challenges. Whereas India’s distinctive relationship with each america and Russia looks as if a power to leverage for higher outcomes, the truth is that these divides run deeper than India alone can bridge. On this more and more fractured world the place nations to the West and East interact in strategic competitors, India’s hope to drive inclusivity on the G-20 is not going to be straightforward. It’s going to even have to point out robust credibility for its capability to steer on the problems most vital to the creating world. This G-20 shall be an necessary testbed for whether or not India’s rising financial energy may also afford it a powerful affect on the world degree.

Finally, India’s function because the voice of the International South will have to be strategically balanced with the nation’s rising ties with the West to construct a powerful basis for consensus on the G-20. Shaping the multilateral agenda amidst diversified nationwide pursuits shall be an necessary diplomatic check for India. Overcoming these challenges would be the true attestation of India’s potential as a future world chief.