An hour before the start of the G20 Summit here on September 9, 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked Sherpa Amitabh Kant the status of the leaders' declaration and when told there were some issues, he asserted he just wanted to see the result - a "consensus" - very soon.
Kant immediately went into a huddle with fellow Sherpas and managed to secure the final agreement.
These behind-the-scene happenings find mention in Kant's new book "How India Scaled Mt G20: The Inside Story of the G20 Presidency".
India had pulled off a big diplomatic win after the G20 summit adopted a consensus declaration overcoming major differences on the Russia-Ukraine war.
Modi made the announcement about a consensus on the 37-page declaration and its subsequent adoption at the start of the second session on the opening day of the two-day summit of the grouping of major developed and developing countries.
Kant says the journey from the principles to the final draft of the NDLD (New Delhi G20 Leaders' Declaration) was, however, far from smooth.
"The text continued to face constant revisions and objections after 300 hours of negotiations over 250 bilateral meetings. The weight and seriousness of the negotiations were felt by all participants, but the pursuit of a mutually agreeable outcome still seemed far from reach," he writes in the book, published by Rupa.
