G20 Summit 2023 and challenges to India’s Presidency

G20 Summit 2023 and challenges to India’s Presidency 

Stage is all set for the two-day G20 Summit 2023 to be held in the national capital from September 9 to 10, 2023 at the Bharat Mandapam in Delhi’s Pragati Maidan.

The G20 or the Group of Twenty comprises 19 countries – Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. It was formed in 1999 in the backdrop of the financial crisis of the late 1990s that hit East Asia and Southeast Asia in particular, and aims to secure global financial stability by involving middle-income countries.

Among those expected to arrive in the Delhi summit are US President Joe Biden, UK PM Rishi Sunak, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau, Japanese PM Fumio Kishida, and Saudi Arabian King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

Most delegates will be staying in hotels situated in the Lutyens’ Delhi area including The Taj Palace, Ashoka Hotel, The Leela Palace, ITC Maurya, Hotel Shangri-La, Hotel Lalit, Hotel Meridian, and Imperial Hotel, among others.

The G20 Presidency rotates annually among the members. It is now India's turn to hold the 2023 summit. So there is nothing unusual that India is the summit venue this time. After India, Brazil will take over the G20 presidency in 2024, followed by South Africa in 2025.

Security has been ramped up in Delhi NCR and major traffic restrictions are in place. All government offices, private offices, educational bodies, commercial and financial establishments (including shops and banks) situated in the city will remain closed. 

G20 members represent around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population. As a forum for international economic cooperation, it plays an important role in shaping and strengthening global architecture and governance on all major international economic issues. 

G20 Summit Full Schedule is as follows : 

September 3-6: 4th Sherpa Meeting – Sherpas are chief negotiators for the G-20 leaders, will meet from September 3 to 6 on the outskirts of Delhi at a resort hotel near Manesar to decide on the content of the “joint communique” to be released at the end of the 18th G-20 summit in Delhi on September 9 and 10. 

September 5-6: Finance Deputies Meeting

September 6: Joint Sherpas and Finance Deputies Meeting

September 9 - 10: Meeting of Ministers at the G20 Summit

September 13-14: 4th Sustainable Finance Working Group Meeting in Varanasi

September 14 - 16: 4th Meeting for the Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion in Mumbai

September 18 - 19: 4th Framework Working Group Meeting in Raipur.

Mounting challenges are adversely affecting predictability and resilience of global trade—aggravating poverty and inequality—and negatively impacting achievement of sustainable development objectives.

The G-20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting on March 2 was unable to agree to a joint communique, over differences between Russia and the West on the war in Ukraine.

The Ukraine war and its impact on the global economy became a point of contention between the member nations, chiefly Russia and China.

India has diplomatically managed to take a neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine issue without attracting any sanctions from the West. While the country has provided humanitarian aid to Ukraine, it’s still buying cheap crude oil, steel, fertilisers and other materials from Russia. India has been working closely with the US and its allies with Washington offering hi-tech defence technologies at discounts, making Russia nervous about losing its traditional partner ‘India’. Now, bringing Russia and other global powers to the table and together finding a solution is the biggest challenge for India.

Putin is not coming to the G20 Summit in India. He couldn't dare to attend the 2023 BRICS Johannesburg Summit fearing arrest due to the warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court of which South Africa is also a part. Had he gone there, SA would have been under pressure from ICC HQ Netherlands for arresting Putin. Same fear he has in India though let it be known that India is not part of the ICC and India may not come under pressure to facilitate Putin's arrest. But as he did before Putin may even on this event try to avoid coming face to face with western leaders who imposed sanctions due to their anguish towards Russia for her military engagement in Ukraine. 

Putin avoided during the annexation of Crimea in 2014 the G20 Brisbane Summit and last year 2022 in November at Bali too. This year he has all the more fear with his security after the mysterious death of Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin. "It’s likely Prigozhin was killed, says Pentagon", reported by The New York Times.

China's Xi Jinping's attendance at the G20 India Summit has been all but ruled out after China's foreign ministry announced the team would be led by the country's Premier, Li Qiang. That would make Xi the second major leader after Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to skip the event.

Xi's skipping the West-heavy club of G20 right after attending the BRICS summit may be a visual illustration of Xi's narrative of 'East is rising, and the West is falling', as well as showing solidarity with Russia's President Putin who is also not attending. 

Xi's absence from the G20 gathering could also be seen as a snub of host India. It could be a signal that China is unwilling to confer influence on its southern neighbour that boasts one of the fastest-growing major economies.

Ties between India and China have also been troubled for more than three years after soldiers from both sides clashed on their disputed Himalayan frontier in June 2020, resulting in 24 deaths. As recently as just after the BRICS Summit 2023 at Johannesburg, August 28 China gave much discomfort by releasing a new edition of the 2023 official map, showing territorial claims on India borders and continues to show the entire State of Arunachal Pradesh and the Aksai Chin region as being within China’s borders.

The gap between developed and developing countries needs to be bridged as the Russia-Ukraine war and the Covid-19 pandemic have hit the already struggling economies hard. The global south’s primary needs are capital, technology and capacity building to address issues of underdevelopment, poverty and climate change. India now has the challenge of bringing together the leaders in both, the global south and the global north, in the absence of Putin and Xi Jinping, reducing the gap, so that issues can be resolved more efficiently.

It will all depend on whether the joint communiqué will be signed after the conclusion of the Summit. Chances are remote. The contents will matter supreme even if by the stroke of luck the joint communiqué is signed.