New Delhi(CNN) Foreign ministers from the world’s largest economies have convened in New Delhi, setting the stage for a grand check in Indian diplomacy because it makes an attempt to navigate tensions over Russia’s brutal and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

In the second high-level ministerial assembly beneath India’s Group of 20 (G20) presidency this 12 months, the nation’s overseas minister, Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, will meet his American, Chinese and Russian counterparts Thursday, hoping to search out sufficient widespread floor to ship a joint assertion on the finish of the summit.

The world’s largest democracy, with a inhabitants of greater than 1.3 billion, has been eager to place itself as a leader of emerging and developing nations — often referred to as the global South — at a time when hovering meals and vitality costs on account of the struggle are hammering customers already grappling with rising prices and inflation.

Those sentiments had been entrance and middle throughout Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s opening remarks Thursday, when he stated the impacts of wars and terrorism, local weather change, the pandemic and the monetary disaster had been being “faced most of all by the developing countries.”

“After years of progress, we are at risk today of moving back on the sustainable development goals. Many developing countries are struggling with unsustainable debt,” Modi stated.

But analysts say India’s try and push its agenda has been sophisticated by the enduring divisions over the struggle.

Those variations performed out within the southern Indian metropolis of Bengaluru final month, when G20 finance chiefs didn’t agree on a press release after their assembly. Both Russia and China declined to signal the joint assertion, which criticized Moscow’s invasion. That left India to subject a “chair’s summary and outcome document” through which it summed up the 2 days of talks and acknowledged disagreements.

Analysts say that all through the struggle New Delhi has deftly balanced its ties to Russia and the West, with Modi rising as a frontrunner who has been courted by all sides.

But because the struggle enters its second 12 months, and tensions proceed to rise, stress might mount on nations, together with India, to take a firmer stand in opposition to Russia — placing Modi’s statecraft to the check.

Acknowledging the struggle had led to “deep, global divisions,” Modi inspired the overseas ministers to place variations apart throughout their assembly Thursday.

“We should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can,” Modi stated. “I’m sure that today’s meeting will be ambitious, inclusive, action oriented, and will rise above differences.”

India’s balancing act

Arguably India’s most celebrated occasion of the 12 months, the G20 summit has been closely promoted domestically, with sprawling billboards that includes Modi’s face plastered throughout the nation. Roads have been cleaned and buildings freshly painted forward of the dignitaries’ go to.

Taking place within the “mother of democracies” beneath Modi’s management, his political allies have been eager to push his worldwide credentials, portraying him as a key participant within the world order.

Last 12 months’s G20 leaders’ summit in Bali, Indonesia, issued a joint declaration that echoed what Modi had instructed Russian President Vladimir Putin weeks earlier on the sidelines of a regional summit in Uzbekistan.

“Today’s era must not be of war,” it stated, prompting media and officials in India to say India had performed an important function in bridging variations between an remoted Russia and the United States and its allies.

India, analysts say, prides itself on its capacity to steadiness relations. The nation, like China, has refused to sentence Moscow’s brutal assault on Ukraine in varied United Nations resolutions. Rather than chopping financial ties with the Kremlin, India has undermined Western sanctions by rising its purchases of Russian oil, coal and fertilizer.

But not like China, India has grown nearer to the West — significantly the US — regardless of ties with Russia.

New Delhi’s ties with Moscow date again to the Cold War, and the nation stays closely reliant on the Kremlin for navy gear — an important hyperlink given India’s ongoing tensions with China at its shared Himalayan border.

The US and India have taken steps in current months to strengthen their protection partnership, as the 2 sides try and counter the rise of an more and more assertive China.

Daniel Markey, senior adviser, South Asia, for the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), stated whereas India’s leaders “would like to facilitate an end to this conflict that preserves New Delhi’s relations with both Washington and Moscow and ends the disruption of the global economy,” India didn’t have “any particular leverage” with Russia or Ukraine that will make a settlement probably.

“I believe that other world leaders are equally interested in playing a peace-making diplomatic role. So when and if Putin wishes to come to the table to negotiate, he will have no shortage of diplomats hoping to help,” he stated.

Still, as Putin’s aggression continues to throw the worldwide economic system into chaos, India has signaled an intention to lift the numerous issues confronted by the worldwide South, together with local weather challenges and meals and vitality safety, in keeping with Modi’s opening speech.

“The world looks upon the G20 to ease the challenges of growth, development, economic resilience, disaster resilience, financial stability, transnational crime, corruption, terrorism, and food and energy security,” Modi stated.

Navigating tensions

While Modi’s authorities seems eager to prioritize home challenges, consultants say these points could possibly be sidelined by the tensions between the US, Russia and China, which have elevated just lately over issues from Washington that Beijing is contemplating sending deadly support to the Kremlin’s struggling struggle effort.

Speaking to reporters final week, Ramin Toloui, the US assistant secretary of state for financial and enterprise affairs, stated whereas Secretary of State Antony Blinken would spotlight its efforts to handle meals and vitality safety points, he would additionally “underscore the damage that Russia’s war of aggression has caused.”

Blinken will “encourage all G20 partners to redouble their calls for a just, peaceful, and lasting end to the Kremlin’s war consistent with UN Charter principles,” Toloui stated.

At the identical time, Russia in a statement Wednesday accused the US and the European Union of “terrorism,” stating it was “set to clearly state Russia’s assessments” of the present meals and vitality disaster.

“We will draw attention to the destructive barriers that the West is multiplying exponentially to block the export of goods that are of critical importance to the global economy, including energy sources and agricultural products,” Russia stated, hinting on the difficulties New Delhi would possibly face throughout the assembly.

India has “worked very hard not to be boxed into one side or the other,” Markey stated. The nation couldn’t “afford to alienate Russia or the US and Modi doesn’t want discussion of the war to force any difficult decisions or to distract from other issues, like green, sustainable economic development,” he added.

But with plummeting ties between Washington and Beijing after the US navy shot down what it says was a Chinese spy balloon that flew over American territory, New Delhi should rigorously drive troublesome negotiations between conflicting viewpoints.

China maintains the balloon, which US forces downed in February, was a civilian analysis plane by chance blown off target, and the fallout led Blinken to postpone a deliberate go to to Beijing.

As variations are prone to play out throughout the ministerial assembly Thursday, analysts stated India would possibly see even restricted progress as a win.

“Any joint declaration would probably be portrayed in the Indian media as a diplomatic accomplishment,” Markey stated. “But its wider significance would be limited.”