PURE SUCCESS

 

 

 

THE G-20 leaders’ summit in New Delhi marking a glorious high point of India’s global engagement should be described as an unmitigated, pure success from multiple angles. The event may also be described as the best and most win-win gathering of top global leadership at a critical point in time when global interests appear to work at cross-purposes for a variety of reasons (that need a separate assessment). As President of G-20 movement, India -- that is Bharat -- played a central role whose parallel may not be available elsewhere in contemporary world. But the summit -- that led to the unanimous New Delhi Declaration -- created a very brilliant image of the host not just as a great organiser but also as a genuine world leader from whichever angle one prefers to see. Every President (country) may not be able to leave such a deep imprint of its contribution to a global activity like India happened to achieve. Everything happened as per plan. Every session went off on a pre-meditated trajectory. Every outcome was as expected beforehand. And every member-country and invitee nation and institution went back with the take-away of a renewed sense of togetherness. This sense of comradeship is all the more important in tune with the G-20 theme ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’. And this was proved the manner in which the delegate nations and institutions arrived at a consensus about the contents of the New Delhi Declaration.

 

What a fantastic diplomatic exercise the negotiations proved to be in the ultimate analysis! For, even the talks slowed down on the contentious Russia-Ukraine issue, tempers remained in check and the deliberating diplomats agreed that consensus was the only way forward -- without dissenting paragraphs or footnotes. This was India’s insistence -- upon a complete consensus. But then, did India bamboozle the talks? Not in the least, as is now all too well known to everybody. India talked sense through those 200 gruelling hours of negotiations, made its points clearly but with respect to every other shade of opinion even on the Russia-Ukraine issue, and appealed to everybody’s good sense to understand the essence of the need of consensus. For India, thus, consensus was not a matter just of diplomacy but a matter of belief the world must hold in the principle of togetherness. The Indian delegation’s argument went well with others that consensus would mean a willingness to walk the path together beyond egotism and rigidness. The negotiations, thus, zeroed in on the consensus not as a matter of political compulsion or expediency but as a matter of reality on whose foundation global deliberations needed to stand together. Russia-Ukraine conflict may have been a bone of contention, all right, for most countries. But even as it stood by its all-weather friend Russia in the difficult moment of global pressure, India did not give up its right to have its own opinion and also effort to convince the world about the right way to analyse the particular situation. That ultimately won the day -- not just for India but also for everybody.

 

The unanimous New Delhi Declaration, thus, appeared on the scene as a complete success of non-partisan dialogue --- which will help the world in subsequent times. The Declaration would, therefore, go down as one of the most sensible document the world saw in quite sometime. It proved the importance of collectivism in a multi-lateral world. Among other successes of the New Delhi gathering were the India-Middle East-Europe-US Economic Corridor (the like of the world had never imagined before), the international biofuel alliance, the road-map to better ecology and environment, mature approach to building a finer architecture of an inclusive global civil society. In each of those points of consideration, the world saw China getting increasingly isolated. During the one year of Indian presidency of G-20, the world saw New Delhi’s approach to global issues more clearly. In sharp contrast, it also saw the Chinese brazenness in imposing upon other nations its own will with scant regard to the opinions and needs of the world. In this manner, India proved to the world the importance of its patience in diplomacy and forging a better and more accommodative world. The leaders who attended the New Delhi summit and their delegations that attended more than 200 meetings at 60 locations across India realised the substance in the maturity of Indian diplomacy.

 

Working patiently and pre-meditatively, India, thus, earned so many friends on its march to a clear world leadership of sensible, measurable standards. This will certainly go a long way to take the G-20 movement forward under Brazil’s presidency (with three priorities of social inclusion and fight against hunger, energy transition and sustainable development, and reforms of global governance institutions. Factually, the three proposed priorities are a carry-forward from the theme India adopted -- ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’, indicating both continuity and change, loyalty to common goals and courage to set newer and further goals. There is little doubt that the gains of G-20 under India’s presidency would act as foundation for Brazil to take the movement forward. What transpired under India’s presidency was not just a wishful poeticism but also a practical realism tempered by the rough and tumble of global diplomacy that is so used to handling tough issues. No matter the mouthing of big words by organisations such as the United Nations on global issues, India has led G-20 into a direction which can offer to the world a truly civil approach to tackling the otherwise impossible-to-handle fire-balls.