India has managed to steer the G-20 in a way that establishes New Delhi’s credentials as a platform where even bitter rivals can participate. Within the SCO, India is resisting efforts to get the organisation to take sides in the ongoing Cold War 2.0., writes Prof. Madhav Das Nalapat
When India took over the year-long rotating Presidency of the G-20 last November from Indonesia, the global faultlines typified in the Russia-Ukraine conflict since 24 February 2022 were visibly expanding. Given that the G-20 included both sides involved in the conflict, the Sino-Russian alliance as well as the G-7, it was apparent that tensions within the larger group would escalate as 2023 progressed. Rather than follow the conventional route and give the rotating presidency little domestic importance and despite the challenges that would come up during that period, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the decision to showcase India’s presidency to the people of India.
In that way, two messages were conveyed, the first being that India was clearly at the Top Table so far as the international order was concerned. Till recently, it had been the UN Security Council that had been considered as the world order’s apex body, but the reluctance of the PRC to admit as a Permanent UNSC Member the world’s most populous country (and what will soon be its third largest economy) has ensured that the premium that the UNSC once enjoyed in the public mind had dimmed into insignificance.
Students from G-20 countries take part in a peace march from Rajghat to Red Fort, in New Delhi (Photo IANS Anupam Gautam)
The permanent veto-wielding membership of just 5 countries in the UNSC now functions as a divided house. While there were illusions about getting China to join hands with the G-7 where pressure on Russia was concerned were high among its members throughout the past year, such optimism has been shown to be unrealistic.
CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping seeks to substantially expand the SCO and BRICS so as to include not just anti-western countries but countries that are veering away from support to the US and its allies, such as seems the situation with Saudi Arabia. The purpose is to create not just an alternative but an opposition to what the CCP considers a western-dominated global order. When Xi talks of multipolarity, what he means in practice is the replacement of the fading unipolarity of the US with that of China. Similarly, to Xi, a BRICS currency swap agreement means not the use of the South African rand, the Brazilian real and the Indian rupee, but the replacement of the US dollar with the RMB in intra-bloc trade.
Through the prominence given in 2023 to the G-20 within India,the other lesson that the Prime Minister intended to convey to the 1.4 billion people of the country was that international peace, stability and progress were not possible in the absence of coordinated efforts at protecting them. And that in the task of ensuring the three objectives of stability, peace and progress, India has a keystone role.
Across India, the holding of G-20 events and the dissemination of information about the group has better opened the gaze of people in India to the world, and so far as the G-20 is concerned, opened multiple corners of India to what is arguably the most consequential multilateral organisation at present. Under the Modi Presidency, the orbit of the G-20 has been lifted to a much higher trajectory in terms of global significance than was the case earlier. When President Lulaof Brazil takes over the rotating presidency from Prime Minister Modi later this year, it will be a G-20 on a much higher trajectory than was the case just a year earlier.
It is certain that Brazil will emerge as a worthy successor to India, so that the higher trajectory gets maintained during its presidency and hopefully afterwards. Assisted by External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Prime Minister Modi is successfully navigating through the rocky shoals and choppy waters of changing international relationships, including those that have been exacerbated by the Russia-Ukraine war.
New Delhi, July 04 (ANI): Prime Minister Narendra Modi at SCO Summit via video conferencing, in New Delhi on Tuesday. Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iran President Ebrahim Raisi and others also seen. (ANI Photo)
While continuing to be a customer of Russian products such as oil, India has continued on the path of deepening security and defence cooperation with the US, Japan and other like-minded countries. Rather than get lost in a welter of conflicting objectives in the way that NATO has done since almost the start of the 21st century, India has remained focused on its key priorities, which include the Global South, food security and the defence of the Indo-Pacific against expansionist powers seeking to wrest land, air and sea space from other countries.
In the task of expansion of space at the expense of other countries, apart from the US itself, the biggest challenge CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping is facing is from India. In Galwan in early 2020, the Indian Army showed that man-to-man, its soldiers are more than a match for their PLA counterparts. India has an inexhaustible reservoir of young people, of whom potentially tens of millions can be trained to deploy as a deadly force in situations of kinetic combat.
Prime Minister Modi through Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, is ensuring just such an expansion of speedily deployable additional man (and woman) power in the uniformed services, including through the Agnipath program. This is in the process of being tweaked so as to make it better able to fulfill the objectives for which it was set up. As have the newly created tri-service theatre commands, another long needed innovation. The Indian armed forces are well on the way to becoming the most capable in the world, including in the essential task of helping protect the Indo-Pacific against predatory powers.
In a way that countries across both sides of the Atlantic failed to do during the 1930s, making a kinetic global conflagration inevitable, the process of building up a coalition capable of deterring the country that is the world’s biggest security challenge in the 21st century needs to succeed. That progress is being made in such a task is clear from the reinvigoration of the Quad by Shinzo Abe and Narendra Modi in 2017, and in the deepening collaboration kinetic and otherwise between like-minded Indo-Pacific countries threatened by expansionist powers, such as India with Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia.
India took over the G-20 and SCO in a year that has been unusually problematic in many ways, and yet has managed to steer the G-20 in a way that establishes New Delhi’s credentials as a platform where even bitter rivals can participate. Within the BRICS, India is resisting efforts to get the organisation to take sides in the ongoing Cold War 2.0 that is taking place, a task in which it is being joined by Brazil and South Africa, neither of which wants the BRICS to become an entity controlled by a bloc that is opposed to another bloc. As for SCO, mindless expansion would destroy its coherence, and needs to be avoided despite pressure from one of its members. Choppy waters, rough seas. Piloting safely in such geopolitical seas is being carried out with energy and efficiency during this particularly turbulent year by the current 2023 Chair of G-20 and SCO, India.
Blue economy supports about 10 per cent — $1.5 trillion of China’s gross domestic product but it is about 4 per cent in India…reports Mahua Venkatesh
India, which currently holds the chair for both G20 and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation SCO, is all set to raise the pitch on conservation of marine and coastal ecosystems especially for the global south as it underlined the importance of the blue economy. The focus will be on chalking out agreements on ocean-based climate solutions, which according to the World Economic Forum (WEF) has been missing.
The WEF added that the ocean has tremendous potential to spur economic growth, create jobs and mitigate some of the most severe climate impacts if the ocean ecology is protected and its resources are used judiciously and sustainably.
“We need to have a full plan to increase cooperation among countries to ensure that ocean ecology is maintained. India has already taken a lead position in bringing the aspect of the blue economy to the fore,” a government insider told India Narrative.
Blue economy supports about 10 per cent — $1.5 trillion of China’s gross domestic product but it is about 4 per cent in India.
All India Radio’s new division noted that the blue economy as a concept would require greater research and development, collaborative tapping, increased South-South cooperation and responsible investments. “These must be facilitated to ensure sustainability and social equity,” it said.
India’s thrust blue economy for overall growth
As the geopolitical thrust is now shifting to the Indo Pacific region, the Narendra Modi government is aggressively looking at boosting the ocean economy and turning a part of it into a global economic corridor.
In 2021, the Ministry of Earth Sciences, which is the nodal ministry, released the draft of the National Policy for India’s Blue Economy with the aim to increase the contribution of blue economy’s to India’s GDP while ensuring the national security of maritime areas.
Last month, the Gautam Adani group acquired the strategically located Haifa port in Israel, which will provide India a direct access to Europe.
In another significant move, the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) will start a liner service that will connect India with the Gulf nations and the Western Mediterranean region. The shipping service expected to begin in December will start from Saudi Arabia’s Jeddah Islamic Port.
It will then call on Jebel Ali in South West Dubai, Mundra and Nhava Sheva in India, Djibouti in Africa, Gioia, Tauro, Salerno and Genoa in Italy, Barcelona and Valencia in Spain, Marsaxlokk in Malta, King Abdullah, which is Saudi Arabia’s newly launched port facility.
Adani has also expressed interest in Egypt’s port sector.
Recently, Comptroller Auditor General of India GC Murmu speaking at a press gathering at the SCO Supreme Audit Institutions’ conference said that even the CAG will sharpen its focus on blue economy.
“The ecological balance and proper utilisation of water resources is key,” Murmu said.
India, with a coastline of more than 7.500 km, is the second largest fish producing country in the world. It has a fleet of 2,50,000 fishing boats. As many as nine states have access to the sea.
This is the first of a series of announcements being made by India preparatory to its assumption of the G-20 Presidency on 1st December, 2022. India’s Presidency will last until 30th November next year…reports Asian Lite News
India, the incoming President of the Group of Twenty (G-20), today announced that it will invite the UAE as one of the “guest countries” to the G-20 summit in New Delhi on 9th and 10th September next year.
This is the first of a series of announcements being made by India preparatory to its assumption of the G-20 Presidency on 1st December, 2022. India’s Presidency will last until 30th November next year.
The G-20 is made up of 19 countries plus the European Union (EU). Its member countries are: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK and the USA.
“India, as G-20 Presidency, will be inviting Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and the UAE as guest countries to the New Delhi Summit,” the announcement said.
India will also invite the International Solar Alliance, the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure and the Asian Development Bank as guest international organisations.
“In addition to G-20 members, there has been a tradition of the G-20 Presidency inviting some guest countries and international organisations to its G-20 meetings and Summit,” India’s Ministry of External Affairs Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said. “Under its Presidency, India is expected to host over 200 meetings related to G-20 across the country, beginning December 2022.”
Collectively, the G-20 accounts for 85 percent of global GDP, 75 percent of international trade and two-thirds of the world population, making it “the premier forum for international economic cooperation.”
The New Delhi Summit will be a major international event in the next calendar year. In addition to 20 of the Group’s members, nine Guest countries of its choice and three international organisations, the Indian Presidency hopes to have at the Summit the following regular invitees.
These are the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Health Organisation, the World Trade Organisation, the International Labour Organisation, the Financial Stability Board and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development plus the Chairs of three regional organisations: African Union, the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development and the Association of South East Asian Nations.
New Ties
H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, has held a tripartite meeting with Catherine Colonna, Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs of France, and Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of India.
The meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, touched on bilateral cooperation relations and strategic partnership and ways to further develop them to support the three countries’ efforts to achieve economic prosperity and sustainable development.
Sheikh Abdullah also reviewed with Colonna and Dr. Jaishankar a number of issues of common interest, including climate change and ways to promote global efforts to combat it, especially with the UAE hosting the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) in 2023.
The meeting covered the developments on the regional and international arenas and the importance of strengthening international cooperation in facing global challenges, including energy and food security.
During the meeting, Sheikh Abdullah said that the UAE has distinguished relations and a fruitful strategic partnership with India and France, noting that the three countries have common visions and aspirations to achieve sustainable growth in their societies to achieve progress and prosperity for their peoples.
Sheikh Abdullah also reviewed with Colonna and Dr. Jaishankar a number of issues, including climate change and ways to promote global efforts to combat it, especially with the #UAE hosting the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) in 2023.
For their part, Dr. Jaishankar and Colonna highlighted the significance of this tripartite meeting and its role in strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership with the UAE at all levels.
The meeting was attended by Dr. Sultan bin Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and Ambassador Lana Zaki Nusseibeh, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation for Political Affairs and the UAE Permanent Representative to the UN.
Bloomberg could not initially obtain confirmation of Putin and Xi’s attendance plans from Russian and Chinese sources…reports Asian Lite News
Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping are both expected to attend the G20 summit in Bali in November, Indonesian President Joko Widodo announced.
“Xi Jinping will come. President Putin has also told me he will come,” dpa news agency quoted Widodo as saying to Bloomberg in an interview published on Friday.
Indonesia currently holds the G20 presidency.
Widodo had invited Putin but the Kremlin has so far not confirmed the Russian President’s plans either way.
Bloomberg could not initially obtain confirmation of Putin and Xi’s attendance plans from Russian and Chinese sources.
Putin’s participation in the summit is considered problematic in the West amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and several countries have put in doubt whether they would participate if he attended in person.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has also been invited.
China is also experiencing heightened tensions with the US that were exacerbated by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan, which was followed by a US congressional delegation visiting Taipei.
Beijing called the moves provocations and launched large-scale military manoeuvres around the democratic island republic in response.
Indonesia is seeking trade and investment and is not seeking to join any bloc, Widodo told Bloomberg.
“Indonesia wants to be friends with everyone,” he said.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, India will hold the G-20 presidency from December 1, 2022, and convene the first G20 leaders’ summit in 2023…reports Asian Lite News
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will visit Bali, Indonesia from July 7 to 8 to participate in the G20 Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (FMM).
During the meeting which is set to take place from July 7 to 8, the participating Foreign ministers will hold talks on issues of contemporary relevance, such as strengthening multilateralism and current global challenges including food and energy security, read a release by the Ministry of External Affairs.
The External Affairs Minister is slated to hold several bilateral meetings with his counterparts from other G20 member states and invited countries during the visit.
The EAM’s participation in the G20 FMM will strengthen India’s engagement with G20 member states. As a G20 troika member and as the incoming G20 Presidency, India’s role in the upcoming FMM discussions assumes even greater importance, the official statement read.
“We are currently extending steadfast support to the Indonesian Presidency, and will be taking forward discussions on contemporary global challenges, with a view to achieving meaningful outcomes, during our Presidency,” the MEA said.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, India will hold the G-20 presidency from December 1, 2022, and convene the first G20 leaders’ summit in 2023.
India is planning to host certain events of G20 in J-K, reported The Express Tribune.
Pakistan is reaching out to its close allies in the group of twenty – China, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to boycott the upcoming G20 meeting in Jammu and Kashmir.
The G20 countries include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, France, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United States and the United Kingdom.
EAM Jaishankar to visit Bali, Indonesia for G20 Foreign ministers meet on Thursday, Friday: pic.twitter.com/7nAwM2qdtu
India’s representation at G20 summits has been led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi since 2014.
The G20 Bali summit is the seventeenth upcoming summit of group of twenty (G20) set to take place on November 15 to 16, 2022 where the progress of G20 will be discussed as well as the intense work carried out within the ministerial meetings, working groups, and engagement groups throughout the year. (ANI)
The Principal Secretary in the Tourism Department will be the nodal officer of this committee, it was stated…reports Asian Lite News
The Madhya Pradesh government has constituted a committee comprising top officials to look after the hospitality and security for the two conferences of G-20 countries to be held in Indore and Bhopal.
Chief Secretary Iqbal Singh Bains has formed the committee of senior officials of the state administration, which includes additional chief secretaries of the general administration and home departments, besides other senior officials, an official said.
The committee, headed by the Chief Secretary, will look after the hospitality and security of the participants during the two conferences of G-20 countries, the official said in a statement. However, no dates for these events were mentioned in the statement.
The Principal Secretary in the Tourism Department will be the nodal officer of this committee, it was stated.
As per the statement, India will host over 190 meetings and conferences of G-20 delegates from December 1, 2022 to November 30, 2023 across the country.
