As the first major G20 event under its presidency – Foreign Ministers meeting – takes place in the national Capital on March 1-2, India looks ahead to lead from the front. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bynow famous comment, “now is not an era of war”, resonanates all around as the world’s fastest growing economy finds itself ideally placed to face the plethora of challenges facing the world. As PM Modi put it, “India is willing to shoulder its share in shaping the global agenda at the G20.It is pulling out all the stops and aiming high.”
Challenges aplenty
The international system today is wracked by contestation along several fronts. The world is churning and the challenges are aplenty – the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the US-China dispute, and the withering away of the multilateral order – are all fracturing the world in unprecedented ways. As a key G20 member state and its current President, respected and listened to by warring camps, India can help devise a global roadmap for the future.
The G20 is unique in so far as it brings together the developed and the developing nations to discuss and create solutions to global governance challenges. India can effectively bridge this divide by forging a consensus on key issues India is poised to play the role of a ‘leading power’ – one that sets rules and shapes outcomes – and the G20 presidency could not have come at a more opportune time for the country to showcase its capabilities.
During the course of its G20 presidency, India plans to hold some 200 meetings involving 32 different sectors in multiple locations, highlighting the country development journey over the last 75 years.
While the G20 was initially formed to manage global economic and financial challenges, its remit has grown and with the current conflation of geopolitics and geoeconomics, the group’s centrality to the global governance discourse is likely to grow further.
Redefining discourse
New Delhi has long insisted that the world needs to “redefine” its conversations on globalisation to include social and humanitarian issues such as terrorism, climate change, and pandemics, as well as the financial and economic impediments to genuine progress and sustainable development.
India’s G20 presidency will be aiming to move the world away from polarisation towards a greater sense of solidarity. Its own reality of being a multicultural democracy should guide it well in bringing together highly diverse stakeholders to cogitate and act on global challenges. Amidst this extant crisis in the global order, India can leverage the opportunities inherent in the very same challenges.
By hosting one of the most highprofile international gatherings ever at a time of great turbulence, the New India under PM Modi is signalling its readiness to think big and deliver big, something that much of the world had long expected from India.
