Opinion | G20 India – New Direction for Global South

The G20 Summit in Delhi was historic in that it brought together the world’s most powerful nations not just to discuss the conflict but to develop a new language and paradigm that expressed the concerns of the Global South at a time when geopolitical tensions over the Russia-Ukraine war have sowed deep divisions throughout the world. The New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration, which was endorsed at the Summit, lays out a new strategy for changing the global economic system to give the needs of the underprivileged and developing nations a higher priority.

The Summit’s focus on issues outside of the concerns of the Western Bloc was clear, whether it be the reform of organizations like the World Bank, debt relief for Zambia, Ghana, Ethiopia, and Sri Lanka, or more funding to assist vulnerable nations in dealing with the costs of climate change. In this sense, the inclusion of the 55-member African Union in the G20 will be India’s lasting legacy. Narendra Modi, the prime minister, took a personal interest in making this happen. The atmosphere at the summit’s location, Bharat Mandapam, with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi extending the invitation during his opening remarks and hugging Azali Assoumani, the head of the AU and president of the Comoros, reflects the democratization of the business forum, which had only previously welcomed one other member of the AU, South Africa.
The Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA) and the much-anticipated India-Middle East-Europe connectivity corridor are the summit’s two other two noteworthy and practical outcomes. The former is envisioned as the largest effort to date to enable trade between India, the Middle East, and Europe through a network of railway tracks and sea routes. It opens up a different path to the Suez Canal and may have significant geopolitical and economic advantages for the cooperating nations. Most importantly, it is being promoted as a counterbalance to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. By providing capacity-building exercises along the whole value chain, the GBA, an association of more than 30 nations and international organizations, supports the development and deployment of sustainable biofuels on a global scale. The mapping of demand and supply and the linking of technology suppliers and end users will be made easier for industries, nations, ecosystem participants, and important stakeholders.
Indian negotiators made sure that the Delhi Declaration avoided conflicts between superpowers. The New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration, which has 83 paragraphs and zero disagreement, no footnotes, and no chair summaries, represents an unmatched level of international consensus, according to the Indian Sherpa, Amitabh Kant. The negotiators, particularly with relation to the Ukraine crisis, persuaded the Western countries to forbid any direct mention of Russia while simultaneously encouraging Russia and China to accept allusions to the war in general. PM Modi and his team of negotiators deserve praise for preventing a positive agenda from being derailed by geopolitical divides.