Why Pakistan lost out at the G20

India got a pro forma condemnation of terrorism in section I of the Declaration. Even that went much farther than last year's G20 Declaration in Bali, which merely mentioned the need for more action

This year's G20 has been all about India. All the excitement, coverage, and even the controversies have focused on India. The event has been nothing less than India's coming-out party on the global stage.

But the event has been almost as much about a country that isn't there. No, not Ukraine; the war was hardly mentioned. Ukraine is in the Leaders' Declaration, but there's nothing there that will have any practical impact on the war or its outcome.

No, the country that found no mention is Pakistan.

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Of course, India got a pro forma condemnation of terrorism in section I of the Declaration. Even that went much farther than last year's G20 Declaration in Bali, which merely mentioned the need for more action.

This year's Declaration categorically stated that "all acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever, and by whomsoever committed." In other words: no excuses.

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Terrorism has often been justified on the basis of social justice, resistance to repression, national aspiration, or other seemingly noble causes. Under India's influence, the G20 leaders agreed to dismiss such mitigating factors. China will have been on board with this. Apologists for terrorism not so much.

On a more practical plane, the Leaders' Declaration also included a commitment "to supporting the increasing resource needs of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and FATF-Style Regional Bodies." Pakistan was removed from the FATF monitoring list in October 2022, but it is under perpetual international attention for terror financing.

On the G20 sidelines, Saturday's announcement of an India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor involving India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the European Union, and the United States is a clear political response to the failed China-Pakistan Economic Corridor — and a clear political win for India.

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Forget Europe and the US, which will have little direct involvement in the corridor beyond financing. This is really about India and the Gulf, which have deep and rapidly developing economic ties.

It wasn't so long ago that Pakistani officers staffed Saudi Arabia's army, and when Pakistan detonated its first atomic bomb in 1998, it was widely viewed as the Muslim world's bomb — and widely suspected of having been financed by Saudi Arabia.

Now, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is on his second state visit to India, and signing off on a major infrastructure investment. That doesn't mean that there will be any kind of security relationship between India and Saudi Arabia. There doesn't have to be. It's enough for India to have flipped Saudi Arabia from a Pakistani military ally to an Indian economic ally.

Indians of a political mindset will want to either credit these wins to the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, or diss Modi, saying that he merely presided over an annual gathering that was due to come to India no matter who was in charge.

Both positions are wrong. India's wins this weekend are not due to Modi nor even to the G20 being held in Delhi. They are down to India's growing presence on the global stage, which has made India's priorities the world's priorities. The G20 is only a venue for announcing India's wins. The wins would have come either way.

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Similarly, Pakistan's losses are not down to caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar, or former Prime Minister Imran Khan. They are the culmination of decades of choosing the wrong side: prioritising military rule over economic development, supporting terrorism, and allying with China.

In other words, it's the Pakistan army’s high command that has lost out in this weekend's G20 announcements. The best we can hope for the people of Pakistan is that they peacefully achieve freedom from military domination. That's something even Indians can rally behind.