Bharat successfully organised G20 summit in New Delhi from September 9-10. The whole world has praised Bharat for its success. In this background, Amitabh Kant, Bharat’s G20 Sherpa, talked exclusively to Organiser Assistant Editor Ravi Mishra. He said, “Bharat’s G20 Presidency has not just enabled inclusion of African Union as the permanent member of G20, but we have also played a pivotal role in substantially including the Voice of Global South across our priorities and across our key outcomes of the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration.” Excerpts
Bharat has successfully organised the G20 summit. What was the mantra for this success?
Bharat’s unifying role as a leader stood out prominently and was critical to success of our Presidency. Our G20 Presidency was not contained within the four walls of meeting rooms. The rich democratic ideals and cultural elements of Bharat infused life into the Presidency, across 220 meetings held in 60 cities, covering every state and union territory. We have also witnessed the largest ever participation with over 100,000 delegates and participants across these meetings, truly making it a presidency representative of diversity. All these efforts were our mantra for success, making our Presidency a successful one. Our Presidency’s ethos and theme of inclusive, ambitious, action-oriented, and decisive was our mantra for success of this Presidency. We began our G20 journey with a vision to move towards our ambitions of Amrit Kaal and vision 2047, hand-in-hand with the world. Resonating with our theme of One Earth, One Family and One Future, Bharat’s Amrit Kaal is crucial for not just the country but also the entire world. Bharat delivered on the G20’s goal to emerge as the problem solver for global interlinked crises of slowing growth, reversing SDG gains, and worsening climate change, while emerging as a bright spot and leader of a resilient, sustainable and inclusive world.
G20 leaders also discussed AI and digital infrastructure. What important role will India play in this?
Bharat has played a critical role in placing DPI as one of our key G20 priorities. The Systems Framework on DPI adopted by G20 will help the countries build and operate their DPIs in line with their conditions, priorities and needs. One Future Alliance initiated by Bharat will build cooperation among all countries, especially developing countries to adapt, build, and scale digital public infrastructure (DPI) to unlock inclusive growth. We have showcased that DPI has capabilities to help reach the last mile in areas of financial inclusion, governance, health, tax collection, among many others. It’s time we help the world adopt the same and Bharat’s domestic success story in this regard will play a critical role in disseminating this to the world. We have also included AI as part of our NDLD to further showcase how adoption of AI responsibly can enable us to achieved SDGs and meet our 2030 Agenda.
“Bharat’s G20 Presidency has not just enabled inclusion of African Union as the permanent member of G20, but we have also played a pivotal role in substantially including the Voice of Global South”
African Union has been granted permanent membership of G20. This happened under Bharat’s presidency. Do you think it has strengthened Bharat’s leadership in the Global South?
Bharat’s G20 Presidency has not just enabled inclusion of African Union as the permanent member of G20, but we have also played a pivotal role in substantially including the Voice of Global South across our priorities and across our key outcomes of the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration. Our Presidency has been inclusive, ambitious, decisive, action oriented and unafraid to challenge the status quo. We have highlighted that the world needs to pivot towards a new global order, and under PM Modi we have given a strong call to action for the leaders of the world to come together and deliver on some of the most pressing challenges that the world faces, embedding the concerns of the Global South, including the AU, at the core of our ambitions and actions. We have done so through our outcomes across climate finance, inclusive and balanced growth, digital public infrastructure, to name a few. Prime Minister Modi envisages Bharat as an impassioned interlocutor between the developed world and the Global South and we have delivered on this. Six of the twelve fastest growing economies among emerging and developing economies are from Africa. Africa’s demographic dividend, minerals, and visionary leadership provided by the African Union makes them an integral and rising economic power that needed to be included into the G20. We successfully built a coalition of emerging markets which began with members of the troika – Indonesia, Brazil and South Africa and expanded to all emerging markets in G20. The inclusion of the African Union into the G20 as a permanent member has bolstered multilateralism and enriched the forum, further strengthening Bharat’s position as a Leader in the Global South.
There is an announcement of global infrastructure ‘India-middle east-Europe Economic Corridor’. Do you think this is the reason why Xi skipped the meeting?
We do not think so, China has been instrumental in driving consensus at various occasions in finalising the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration and China has been a great multilateral player. We have had excellent pacification from the Chinese delegation across all the meetings, including all the Sherpa meetings and the Summit was attended by China’s delegation as well. Regarding the announcement of India-middle east-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) will play a critical role in mobilising nearly $600 billion from the G7 by 2027 to invest in critical infrastructure that improves lives and delivers real gains for all of our people and the G20 collectively welcomes it. Given the magnitude of infrastructure that still lefts to be built in developing countries, there is room for several such initiatives in the world, be it Belt and Road Initiative or the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII) or IMEC. China has also welcomed all initiatives to promote global infrastructure development and that there is no question that various related initiatives will replace each other.
“The negotiations for declaration were long and arduous and it was not just a one-day effort. We have clinched this consensus basis over two months of hard fought negotiations that went towards the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration”
Please elaborate on the Biofuel Alliance
Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA) is an initiative by India as the G20 Chair. his alliance, driven by India, the United States, and Brazil, is a concerted effort to address pressing energy and economic challenged through sustainable biofuels. The GBA intends to expedite the global uptake of biofuels through facilitating technology advancements, intensifying utilization of sustainable biofuels, shaping robust standard setting and certification through the participation of a wide spectrum of stakeholders. The alliance will also act as a central repository of knowledge and an expert hub. GBA aims to serve as a catalytic platform, fostering global collaboration for the advancement and widespread adoption of biofuels. Bharat being the third largest consumer and importer of oil, this alliance will be critical for India to achieve energy security and reduce surging oil import bills, and similarly for other oil importing countries.
There was suspicion over the New Delhi declaration. However, it came on the first day of the summit.
The negotiations were long and arduous and it was not just a one-day effort. We have clinched this consensus basis over two months of hard fought negotiations that went towards the New Delhi Leaders’ Declaration (NDLD). We produced multiple drafts during this time, taking onboard views of countries. In addition to these negotiations, nearly 200 meetings took place to build consensus on the NDLD. On the geopolitical front, the negotiations were extremely tough, but my young and dynamic team’s effort made it possible for us to derive towards the consensus. We were clear from the beginning that we did not want a divided G20. Consensus was our only option. Over 200 hours of arduous negotiations went into resolving the geopolitical paragraphs. I worked closely with my Brazilian and South African counterparts and later my Indonesian counterpart in working out language that was acceptable to all parties. The deal was clinched owing to the Prime Ministers’ credibility, and emerging markets working together to bring G20 together and speak in one voice, enabling us to achieve consensus a day earlier.
