G20 is the alliance of 20 countries having top economies in the world. India has got the responsibility of president of the alliance this year and they’ve arranged this international summit.
The matter of India’s taking responsibility as president in the face of strong geo-political polarization, the divide between north-south and east-west, many challenges and the expectations of the people of the world is very challenging and extraordinary task. However, we’re hopeful to build bridge among different zones and powers of the world despite the serious challenge ahead. With a view to unite the divided world successfully, the slogan of G20 Summit 2023 was set as ‘One Earth One Family One Future.’
India took the responsibility of G20 as a challenge and during the time of their taking this duty, a conflicting situation is prevailing in the world. The effect of Covid-19, Russia-Ukraine war, worldwide recession, high inflation and climate crisis are giving the world a hard time. In addition, the polarization in the world is more evident now than it was earlier.
India has come forward to play the role of negotiator amid the time of ever-rising crises. In this regard, a meeting was held at Sundar Lake City of Udaypur in India in the first week of December. On that meeting, the culture and ICT expertize of India were made clear to all. India became G20 president during the time when it also became president in the UN Security Council for the month of December and showed a strong stance in Shanghai Cooperation Organization. These three diplomatic events depicted the leadership role of India in global perspective.
India’s global position in last few years have ushered a light of hope for international partnership, regional dialogues and developing world. India has become respected member of BRICS (Brazil, Russian, India, China, and South Africa). They’ve also been playing leadership role in COAD and SCO. Besides, India has playing important role in effective regional cooperation, among which there’re EU, ASEAN and SAARC.
Why G20 is important: The world is now going through a tough time and international community is in search of reliable solutions. It’s now a great challenge to bring in some positive vibe in geo-political and macroeconomic stages to tackle the all-sided uncertainty. The platform of G20 is an unique one which includes main and uprising economy of the world. So far, G7 and the Security Council of United Nations have been playing pivotal role in global perspective. On the other hand, G20 have created partnership among the countries having top most economy of the world. It has built a relation with P5 counties, which made G20 a relevant and influential group in the world. But, now its great challenge for G20 to minimize the line of divide created in the context of Russia-Ukraine.
Sustainable India: India has been playing a visionary role amid immense pressure and uncertainty. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led us successfully in facing Covid-19. India has come back as one of the fastest growing economy and it hasn’t gone back from completing its responsibility amid tough times.
The views of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been reflected in the foreign policy of India. After getting the presidency of G20, India has set the slogan of the summit as ‘One Earth One Family One Future.” Our ancient philosophy is highlighted in the slogan. Narendra Modi urged for becoming ‘People-centric’ in reaction to Covid-19 in 2020. To tackle the epidemic, India aided countrymen by providing vaccine and oxygen. This excellent achievement has contributed a lot in flourishing renewable energy and expanding crisis prevention ability worldwide. India lent its helping hand from Aceh province of Indonesia to east African country Mozambique in the time of crisis.
New Take Order: India’s developing perspective agenda has been formed under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and it aimed to green and digital transformation in economy and the society. In the world already divided by polarization, India want to see the uprising of a just, justified and equilibrium society. India has become the fastest growing economy and as one of the best countries in the world, it has digital public infrastructure model. It’s now fastest growing economy, having largest smartphone data consumers and global fin-tech receiver. In Bali Summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi indicated that India has done more than 40% of real time payment through UPI last year. He said India have designed digital public products which consists of internal democratic principle in its basic structure. However, citizens of most of the developing counties don’t have any ‘Digital Identity.’
We, under our presidency, will strive for strengthening this alliance by advancing hand in hand with other G20 partners. We’ve to create such a process by which the developing countries can face crises. India’s presidency of G20 will take the world forward as a whole to implement global health-friendly system, which could tackle the future health crisis like epidemics.
India’s tenure as the temporary member in UN Security Council was ended in 2022. Already, India has played a very effective role in this highly polarized UN organization. For the first time, an Indian Prime Minister presided over the conference of UN Security Council. India’s view in local power and preventing terrorism in Afghanistan was acclaimed in international community, which will help India to become a permanent member in UNSC in future.
India for the first time in the meeting held in New Delhi formed counter terrorism committee of UNSC. In the meeting, counter terrorism committee tried to set the tactics of preventing terrorism. Arranging the meeting was a milestone for us as such a meeting used to be held at the UN headquarters in New York.
The ‘Delhi Declaration’ accepted in the meeting was a landmark document which will prevent extremism, fundamentalism and terrorist activities. International community has to tackle the curse of terrorism if they want to look forward as the foreign minister S Jaishankar termed it as ‘Global Counter terrorism Approach.’ It reflected Narendra Modi’s international spirit and expressed his excellent intelligence.
In fact, India is involved in numerous activities worldwide, including their active role in UN and other international agencies.
The Golden Time: The vision of India isn’t confined to rich and influential people and its strong support exists for developing world. In this regard, Foreign Minister S Jaishankar said India has been playing role of active voice in south hemisphere very widely. India is preparing for taking G20 presidency and it will represent hopes and expectations of the alliance as well as secure comfortable position for developing world.
India has wide reputation and acceptability in international community and achieved applause of powerful and developing countries simultaneously. We want all counties of the world to work under G20 presidency and to use our recent achievement and experience for the socioeconomic development and welfare of all nations.
We’re entering into a golden age and staying on the path of advancement. To fulfill our combined expectations, we want to transform our trajectory for higher growth and inclusive development. India will turn into a developed country within 2047 as our internal spirit and constructive position will take us to lead the world. Really, India can provide solutions to many global crises.
India is advancing with G20 presidency and wants to play vital role in history of the world. Presidency of G20 is a unique opportunity for the Indians, and we’ll have to take the duty ardently to make it fruitful. We’ve to be conscious so that our enriched cultural tradition, diversity, tourism prospect and development strength can enrich global principles.
Harsh Vardhan Shringla is India's G20 chief coordinator and former foreign secretary.
BDST: 1517 HRS, JAN 13, 2023
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