As this 12 months’s G20 summit got here to an in depth in Bali, Indonesian President Joko Widodo formally handed over the the bloc’s presidency to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. New Delhi will formally take over the G20 management on December 1.

“We have to make full use of this opportunity and focus on global good, world welfare,” Modi stated over the weekend.

“Whether it is peace or unity, sensitivity toward the environment, or sustainable development, India has solutions to challenges related to these,” he added.

Will India set the worldwide agenda?

Over the course of the 12 months, and within the run-up to the leaders’ summit in 2023, India is anticipated to host over 200 G20 working group conferences, scheduled to happen in numerous areas throughout the South Asian nation.  

New Delhi has already unveiled the emblem, theme and web site of its G20 presidency, and arrange a secretariat to coordinate all of the diplomatic exercise.

“This is the first time India is going to set the agenda for the world. So far, we were reacting to the agenda being received from the developed world,” Amitabh Kant, an Indian official coping with G20 assembly preparations, advised native media.

Indian officers have stated the G20 presidency gives a chance to showcase New Delhi’s main position in international affairs, significantly at a time when the world is confronting multiple geopolitical and economic crises. 

Happymon Jacob, who teaches international coverage at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, identified that India is concurrently changing into the chair to each the G20 and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

“Even as India is reluctant about mediating in the Ukraine conflict, its actions and words will have an impact on the global reactions to the war and the postwar international situation. To that extent, I believe India being the chair of these two institutions is important,” Jacob advised DW.

“New Delhi is likely to put up a good show next year including perhaps getting Russian President Vladimir Putin to attend the meeting.”

Consensus-building poses an enormous problem 

But Anil Wadhwa, a former Indian diplomat, stated India faces some key challenges throughout its presidency.

“The climate crisis has accelerated, and the conflict in Ukraine will cast a long shadow on the G20 consensus-building efforts. In light of the conflict, many countries face rising debt, poverty and a looming food and energy disaster,” he advised DW.  

New Delhi might want to skillfully navigate this diplomatic minefield and promote efforts to construct international consensus on tackling these challenges, he added.

Meera Shankar, a former Indian ambassador to the United States, additionally stated New Delhi is assuming the G20 presidency at a difficult time. But she burdened that India should not enable the issues to disrupt the discussion board’s agenda.

“The challenges that the world faces are so enormous that geopolitical conflict and rivalries should not be allowed to crowd out or derail the important work of the G20,” she stated.

On the Ukraine battle, she famous that “the way forward lies through diplomacy and dialogue, not expanding military conflict.”

An all-out diplomatic effort? 

In latest years, the G20 has emerged because the world’s premier intergovernmental discussion board, comprising each developed and growing international locations.

The bloc represents economies that account for over 80% of world GDP, about 75% of its commerce and 60% of the inhabitants.  

But tensions among the many grouping’s members have been on the rise over the Ukraine battle, trade disputes and soaring prices of food and fuel worldwide, amongst different issues.   

Against this backdrop, New Delhi is anticipated to spotlight the necessity for unity and cooperation to resolve the most important international challenges.  

Officials say India will deploy all its diplomatic and persuasion abilities to make sure that Russia, China, the US and different Western powers shed their variations and attend the 2023 leaders’ summit in New Delhi. 

“India has been nicely served by the Bali assembly, even when unwittingly. There was a joint declaration, when not too many anticipated one. Two, the paragraph on Ukraine passed muster and this will likely be a template for the Delhi summit,” stated Mohan Kumar, a former diplomat. 

“The challenge is if something untoward happens either in Ukraine or elsewhere, which then completely hijacks the Delhi summit. But it is hard to predict these things. For now, India will feel reasonably confident that it can pull off a successful G20 summit in September next year.”

Edited by: Srinivas Mazumdaru