India transitions into a leading world power

India’s alacrity to secure a consensus has resurrected the G20’s credibility and signalled its transition from being a balancing world power to a leading power

Those who have been involved in tough multilateral negotiations are used to the clock being stopped to allow the negotiators more time to arrive at a consensus. But seldom do you see multilateral negotiations concluding satisfactorily a day earlier, leaving the leaders enough time to do shopping and sight-seeing. Such is the magic that India pulled off on Saturday when the G20 leaders agreed to a final joint declaration based on consensus. Full credit to Team India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The success that India achieved against all odds is also a testament to India’s rising geopolitical clout. For the G20, it was a matter of credibility. Failure to arrive at a leaders’ declaration in New Delhi would have damaged the institution, perhaps irreversibly.

G20 members agreed to a Green Development Pact, which they hope to achieve through mainstreaming the Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE) (PTI)

India set itself three overriding objectives for its presidency: One, to showcase the country in all its glory and diversity; two, to try and be the voice of the Global South; and three, to be the bridge between the North and the South. As it turned out, it came through with flying colours on all three. Showcasing the country was a good move. And despite critics saying we were overdoing it, the message hit home and G20 delegates were duly impressed. The investment in goodwill and infrastructure will pay handsome returns.

Two moves helped India fulfil its role as the voice of the Global South. One was the Voice of the Global South Summit held in January with the participation of some 125 countries, an overwhelming majority of which were from the Global South. India listened patiently to their interests and concerns; more significantly, it took them on board and the New Delhi Declaration fully reflected it.

The second masterstroke was to push for the admission of the African Union as a full-fledged member of the G20 during its presidency. Both these actions should burnish India’s credentials to assume the mantle of leadership of the Global South.

It goes without saying that the G20 was envisioned as an economic forum, so it does not have the mandate, strictly speaking, to deal swiftly with geopolitical issues. Yet, geopolitical issues have an enormous impact on the global economy, as the conflict in Ukraine has shown. If India really wished to be the voice of the Global South, it needed to get a consensus on the paragraphs on Ukraine. This had eluded India in the run-up to the summit and all ministerial meetings ended in a stalemate. It is here that the genius of Indian diplomacy manifested itself. The Bali leaders’ declaration was a black swan event, since Russia basically agreed to scathing self-condemnation there. That was not going to happen again, so Indian wordsmiths had to come up with language, de novo, that would reflect the consensus. They delivered with a document where every side can interpret the language as substantiating its own position on the intractable conflict.

As for India’s other priorities, the declaration showed how substantive the outcomes were. For instance, the 2030 sustainable development goals (SDGs) agenda was severely disrupted in the last three years and the world is off course on most SDGs. Recognising this, the declaration committed to accelerate the full implementation of the SDGs and scale up financing from all sources. In this context, the G20 hopes to pursue reforms for better, bigger and more effective multilateral development banks to address the developmental challenges of the Global South.

The climate crisis was also a key priority. G20 members agreed to a Green Development Pact, which they hope to achieve through mainstreaming the Lifestyle for Environment (LiFE), implementing the G20 High Level Voluntary Principles on Hydrogen, tripling global renewable energy capacity and scaling up climate finance. The declaration sought to deliver on climate and sustainable finance by calling for an ambitious replenishment of the green climate fund, noted the need for $5.8 to 5.9 trillion for developing countries before 2030 to implement their nationally determined contributions, and reminded developed countries of their longstanding obligation to give $100 billion to developing countries. It also called on countries to set an ambitious and new quantified goal of climate finance from the floor of $100 billion to fully implement the Paris Agreement.

In digital public infrastructure, India left an indelible imprint. The G20 leaders welcomed both the Framework for Systems of Digital Public Infrastructure and India’s plan to build and maintain a Global Digital Public Infrastructure Repository on a voluntary basis. The G20 also took note of the Indian presidency’s proposal of the One Future Alliance, a voluntary initiative aimed at building capacity, providing technical assistance and adequate funding for implementing digital infrastructure in lower income countries. Emphasising the importance of gender equality, the G20 members committed to halving the digital gender gap by 2030.

At the end of the day, India ticked all the boxes and quite simply rose to the occasion. India’s transition from being a balancing power to a leading power may have just begun. This G20 triumph will fundamentally transform Indian diplomacy.

Mohan Kumar is a former Indian ambassador, dean/professor and director of the G20 Centre at OP Jindal Global University. The views expressed are personal