G-20: India’s Platform for Global Leadership

Context: 

• The G-20 was born out of the Asian financial crisis 25 years ago. It was upgraded to convene heads of government after a global financial and economic crisis a decade later.

Image Source: The Hindu Business Line

Ukraine issue & differing positions of member countries:

• The war in Ukraine is affecting the global economy, climate change, nuclear stability and the Charter principles of the United Nations that underpin the rule of law in international relations.
• Today, however, the organization that styles itself as the ‘premier forum of international economic cooperation’ appears to be descending into deadlock on the war in Ukraine.

Difficult road for India:

• Japan’s Finance Minister said that Russia’s invasion had upended the ‘foundations of the global order’, making it ‘difficult for the G-20 to engage in constructive discussion.’
• At the G-20 Finance Ministers’, India found itself in the uneasy situation of having to explain whether it supported its own Chair’s summary, on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, while the majority was against Russia’s moves.

Need to Focus:

• The concern is global: this is not just a European problem.
• The war has affected oil and gas prices, exacerbated inflation and disrupted global food supplies and prices, adding to the precarity of life for millions in parts of Africa and Asia.
• Further, it has escalated nuclear risks, not just in the form of threats of the use of nuclear weapons.
• Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reported that ‘every single one’ of the Agency’s ‘pillars’ of nuclear safety and security ‘has been compromised.’
• The longer the war continues, the weaker Russia — sanctioned and isolated by most developed economies — will become, and consequently, the more dependent it will be on China for markets, political cover and perhaps even weapons.

Renewing commitments:

• India denied Ukraine’s Finance Minister an invitation to address the gathering while Japan, as chair of the G7, invited him to a meeting on the sidelines at which the G7 renewed their financial commitments to Ukraine and discussed further sanctions on Russia.
• Ironically, India reportedly played a vital role last year in helping the Bali summit reach consensus, with the final document echoing “now is not the time for war.”
• It would be a tragedy if India saved the Bali summit but lost the New Delhi one because it was unable to take a position on upholding the principles of another international organization.

Way Forward:

• There is a time for leaving the door open for dialogue with both sides of a conflict, and there is a time for calling out fence-sitting as a wasted opportunity.
• Condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not about supporting the United States or encouraging NATO expansion: it is about upholding the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity enshrined in the UN Charter.
• These are also the same principles that India has relied on for international support in the four wars that it has fought since independence.                                                                                                                                                                    

News Source: The Hindu