Call the bluff of those blocking consensus at pre-Summit G20 meetings

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will have to use all his persuasive abilities to ensure that the dialogue does not end in a stalemate. (File photo)

When kings, sultans, presidents, chancellors and prime ministers meet in New Delhi on September 9 and 10 for the Group of Twenty Summit, it will require all of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s persuasive abilities to ensure that their dialogue does not end in a stalemate.

Two myths are being propagated in the run-up to the 18^th Summit of the G20. One motivated falsehood is that within G20, only two countries – Russia and China – are blocking a consensus and preventing unanimous communiques and declarations at the group’s ministerial meetings taking place nowadays in various Indian cities. The second, and more pernicious myth, is that Russia’s military operation in Ukraine is the cause of discord within G20: the Russia-Ukraine conflict is only symptomatic of the challenges facing G20. It is not the disease itself.

Genesis Of Discord

The second myth first. The international order was adrift well before Russia resorted to force against Ukraine a year ago. President Vladimir Putin’s military action did not cause the schisms in the state of the present-day world. These have existed for at least a decade although the war in Ukraine, undoubtedly, deepened them. The election of Donald Trump as the 45^th President of the United States of America was what started a process of disintegration of the Global Commons with disastrous consequences. Trump’s successor, Joe Biden, does not have the vision or the wherewithal to repair them. Instead of challenging Trump’s long list of acts of commission designed to damage the earth and its inhabitants, Russia, China, India, Brazil and most similarly placed countries selfishly chose to make the most for themselves of his bad occupancy of the White House. France was about the only major country to have stood up to the US during those four years. It failed. Even Germany, the most powerful nation in Europe, and Asia’s wealthy Japan acquiesced.

During the Trump years, at none of the four G20 Summits in Germany, Argentina, Japan and Saudi Arabia, the actions of the US or its reluctant, but inevitable, European backers were questioned, or Summit communiques were held up the way G20 is now being made hostage by the West to Russian actions. History will conclude that Trump damaged the world much more in four years than Putin has done in the last one year. At least so far. At the United Nations too, Trump was given a free pass, but the world body is now being constrained to the point of inaction by the US and Europe to punish Putin. That is why India – with its historical memory of colonialism – has abstained on most anti-Russia resolutions in the UN Security Council last year and continues to do so now in the General Assembly.

Now the first myth. Among the countries which will be in New Delhi in September – either as full G20 members or as special invitees – are several who have voted inconsistently on Russia-Ukraine resolutions at the six main UN organs and its very many subsidiaries. When the latest UN General Assembly resolution on the first anniversary of the war last month was put to vote, G20 members South Africa, India and China abstained. Bangladesh, a special invitee to the New Delhi Summit, also abstained. The United Arab Emirates, another special invitee has, on occasion, abstained from voting on such resolutions, and at other times, voted in favour. Same with Brazil, which is a full G20 member. Immediately after abstaining on the latest UN resolution, G20 member South Africa went further: it conducted naval exercises with Russia in the Indian Ocean, rejecting pressure from Washington to cancel those exercises, which were planned only after the start of the war in Ukraine.

Seeking Concurrence

Last month’s General Assembly resolution was considerably watered down by its Western sponsors to secure maximum support and reduce abstentions on the Assembly floor. It did not “condemn” Russia, for instance. The resolution merely called for an end to the war and demanded that Russia should leave Ukrainian territories it has occupied. Had the original, stronger, Western text of the resolution been tabled, several more of the G20 members would have either voted against it or abstained. Therefore, it is time to call the bluff of those who are blocking consensus documents at pre-Summit G20 meetings in India. Disinformation tactics by the US and Europe that Russia and China alone are causing rifts and sabotaging prospects of success at the September meeting of Heads of State and Government must be nipped in the bud. Otherwise, the atmospherics during the G20 Summit can be sullied.

With Indian organisers outdoing themselves in their efforts to make the New Delhi Summit the most memorable of all the 17 previous G20 conclaves, what the original promoters of this multilateral group fear is that the organisation they thought of as their entitlement is slipping out of the hands of the Group of Seven rich nations. The G20 “troika” – Indonesia, India and Brazil – are now working on a “Leaders’ Declaration” to be issued in New Delhi on September 10. With three developing countries constituting the troika for the first time, the West fears that this Declaration may not be to the liking of G7 countries. They are, therefore, scapegoating Russia, China and the Ukraine war and masking their real objective of preventing a New Delhi Declaration heavily favouring the Global South. The US and the European Union countries can no longer be counted on to make the next G20 Summit a success.

KP Nayar has extensively covered West Asia and reported from Washington as a foreign correspondent for 15 years. Views are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.