A day ahead of the G20 summit in New Delhi, India’s G20 Chief Coordinator Harsh Vardhan Shringla has struck a hopeful note that a joint declaration will eventually work out despite the persisting impasse over the Ukraine issue, and underlined that all G20 countries are working to make the Delhi summit a success.
“We believe in diplomacy and dialogue as a means to address any such issue. We are happy to contribute to any effort that provides for peace and stability in the world,” Shringla said in an exclusive interview with India Writes Network and The Daily Guardian. “There will be deliberations that will be of a very high order which would include issues that pertain to global challenges and opportunities of the day. I have no doubt that the Summit will be highly successful,” he said when asked whether the September 9-10 summit in New Delhi will culminate in a joint declaration With hours to go before the summit, G20 sherpas are engaged in intense last-minute negotiations to forge a compromise formulation on the Ukraine issue in the Delhi Declaration, which will be acceptable to both G7 countries and Russia.
The veteran diplomat countered the growing impression that the absence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will impact the success of the New Delhi summit. “In any of these international conferences, you don’t always have the participation of all leaders. Some leaders for their own reasons are not able to come, but that does not mean that their commitment to the G20 process is any less,” he said. “I have no doubt that all of our partners will contribute to the success of the G20. All of them realize the importance of the G20 in addressing today’s contemporary challenges. And I think there is no doubt that all G20 countries will endeavour to make the New Delhi G20 Summit successful.” Shringla argued that the New Delhi summit will result in transformational outcomes in the areas of development, inclusion and digital public infrastructure.
Alluding to the credo of India’s G20 presidency of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, Shringla said that it’s time to “work together collectively to address the challenges the day and find solutions collectively that would ameliorate the situation that much of mankind is facing, especially in the developing world.”
“How can we provide for inclusive and sustainable growth? How can we ensure that the SDG process which is in a critical phase is take4n forward? How can we ensure that multilateral institutions are reformed in a way that they can address the needs of the 21st century, especially those of the developing world? How can we bring about women-led development? These are the real issues,” he said.
Echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s view, Shringla, a former foreign secretary, stressed that forging a “human-centric model of development” could be the lasting legacy of India’s G20 presidency. “At a philosophical level, we have taken the G20 process to a different level. We have utilised our human-centric model of development and brought it to the global level so that we can work together collectively to ensure the global common good through a process of human-centric globalisation,” he said. “If you see our own experiences, whether it is in economic development, whether it is in technology, whether it is in infrastructure development, the effort has always been to take it down to the last mile through technology,” he said.
Highlighting that India has placed the interests of the Global South on top of the G20 agenda, Shringla underlined that India has factored the views, aspirations and expectations of developing countries in the agenda of India’s G20 presidency and the New Delhi summit. “We have no doubt that some of the outcomes that we will achieve through our presidency will address the main areas of interest and concerns of the Global South.”
Shringla also struck a confident note on the inclusion of the 55-nation African Union into G20 as a full member. “We have the highest representation of African countries under our G20 presidency. We have proposed that the African Union be included as a permanent member of the G 20. We have always felt that Africa has been underrepresented in G20 and international organisations,” he said.
(Manish Chand is CEO, Centre for Global Insights India, a think tank focused on global affairs and India Writes Network. He is Editor-in-Chief, India and the World, a journal on international affairs.)