This weekend when the world’s most powerful nations meet at New Delhi, the most profound and well established disagreements over Russia’s war in Ukraine will be discussed at risk to overcome the issues like food, security, debt overhang and international cooperation on climate change.
Even a single disclosure is avoided at the related meetings of the G20 this year in India due to the stronger viewpoint on the war, and it is left to the leader’s to find a solution. While Premier Li Qiang will be representing China instead of President Xi Jinping but President Vladimir has guaranteed the absence for Russia saying that the nation will neither be joining the meeting. It means the West and its allies dominate the two day summit, which begins on September 9. The G20 meeting will be attended by US President Joe Biden, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Salman and Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida.
Failure of the summit could prove to be a major blow to cooperation between West and non-western powers, forcing countries to step up their integration with other groups they like much better, analysts say.
Michael Kugelman the director of the South Asia Institute told at the Wilson Center in Washington that to resolve global issues “dividing off into Western and non-Western blocs isn’t what you want”. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is trying to develop New Delhi’s status as an economic powerhouse and a leader of the global south will be hurt if the diplomatic testimonials of the agreement is a failure. “If the leaders’ summit is a flop, New Delhi and especially Modi will have suffered a major diplomatic, and political, setback,” Kugelman added.
A senior Indian Government official said to Reuters that the positions have gone worse after the Bali Summit referring to the summit at Indonesia held in 2022. He also said that if Russia and China hardened their position after that, an agreement would be very difficult.
Joko Widodo, the president of Indonesia, in Bali settled a final statement from the bloc. Another Government official said that India is trying to again do something at the last minute together with all the leaders.
“Most of the members firmly criticized the Ukraine war and the stress caused from the war on human life and aggravating present brittleness in the global world”, declared The Bali Leaders’. Other points of views and different assessments of the situations and sanctions were also present, it added.
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who will come on behalf of Putin have drawn battlelines prior. Trudeau also said that he is upset for not inviting the Ukrainian President while he was on call with Zelenskiy. “As you know, we will be speaking up strongly for you, and we will continue to make sure that the world is standing with Ukraine,” Trudeau said to Zelenskiy on call.
The BRICS Group of Nations, where China is the heavyweight, added six more countries to the bloc push to reconstruct a world order it seems as outdated in the previous month.
Along with Russia, China, South Africa and Brazil, India is also a member of BRICS which previously had some interest in the bloc’s expansion. But last month at Johannesburg, it joined an agreement on the criteria of new entrants at the Summit.
India has pushed for resolution on climate change, debt for vulnerable countries, rules around cryptocurrencies, and international bank reforms during its G20 presidency in an effort to put disagreements over Ukraine to rest.
New Delhi has also made an effort to resolve a standoff over an agreement that permitted the secure transport of Ukrainian grain via Black Sea, but Indian officials claim that Russia is unlikely to change its position on the proposal. A minimal global corporation tax and debt restructuring negotiations have made little forward over the past year, but India has been successful in winning back from the United States and the International Monetary Fund for comprehensive global controls on cryptocurrencies.
Increased funding by multilateral banks to poor nations has also been suggested by a G20 committee led by economist Larry Summers and former U.S. treasury secretary N.K. Singh, both former Indian bureaucrats. There hasn’t yet been agreement on the proposal. Developed and developing countries disagreed on climate change objectives during group talks in July, and officials predicted that the views would not shift during the summit.
