Indian and Russian experts on Monday hailed India's G20 presidency where the voice of the Global South was dominant in subduing the hegemonic West that could not push its agenda, leading to a consensus on the controversy over the inclusion of the Ukraine conflict in the New Delhi Declaration.
Through an online video bridge, the experts from New Delhi and Moscow discussed the outcomes of the Indian presidency of the G20.
They outlined as success the consensus pulled off by India despite a maximalist position on the Ukraine issue by the G7 led by the US on the one side and Russia and China on the other.
They also outlined India’s leadership of the G20 forum and hailed the inclusion of the African Union in the grouping.
The Indian speakers included former ambassador Rajiv Kumar Bhatia, National Co-Convenor of Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) Professor Ashwani Mahajan and former dean at School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Anuradha Chenoy.
The Russian speakers comprised Vice Rector of the National Research University Higher School of Economics and Sherpa of the Russian Federation in the “Women’s Twenty (W20), Victoria Panova, Director of the Institute for Research in International Economic Relations and Professor of the Department of World Finance of the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, Victoria Perskaya and Chief Researcher of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Professor of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History of Asian African Countries, Moscow State Pedagogical University, Andrei Ostrovskii.
Khanna said India steered the whole world taking the leadership role as the voice of the Global South by including the African Union and also forged a consensus between the G7 countries and Russia and China on the other hand.
Khanna also underscored that India’s G20 presidency underpinned that multilateral institutions should reinvigorate themselves to be relevant and in sync with the times.
Mahajan delved on the issues of crypto currency, debt traps and the need for the developed countries to finance the developing world in mitigating the climate change challenges that were the highlights of the New Delhi Declaration.
Professor Chenoy also dubbed the Summit as comprehensive, holistic and inter-related, and reflected the changed international atmosphere and the Global south was prominently mentioned in the paragraphs of the Declaration.
India did not acquiesce to the pressures of the dominant and hegemonic West during the Foreign Ministers meeting and the G20 meeting signaled the need for reforms in the multilateral forums like WTO. “Framework for a new multilateralism has been laid,” she said.
While backing the contentions of the Indian experts, the Russian speakers on a specific question asserted the Belt and Road Initiative of China has been in operation for the last one decade and as many as 149 countries are participating in it and the proposed transport corridor between India-Middle East-Europe could complement the BRI.
Panova hailed India for the diplomatic success in the form of wordings in the New Delhi Declaration which was acceptable to all and the reference of Ukraine is not there in the document.