At Bengaluru G-20 Meet, India's Bid To Amplify Influence Over Global South

India is seeking to use soft power by championing issues important to struggling nations such as debt relief.

India is set to use this week's meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 nations to try to amplify its influence over developing economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America called the Global South. India is on the rise, but sinister designs are there, to set afloat a narrative against us.This is another way of invasion.We have to be alert.We have to boldly neutralize it. @iis_now@IIMC_Indiapic.twitter.com/n0pSWPZeAX

Without the cash to dole out billions in loans like China did under President Xi Jinping's Belt-and-Road Initiative, India is seeking to use soft power by championing issues important to struggling nations such as debt relief. That's one issue that may emerge as a key theme at the meetings in Bengaluru on Feb. 24-25.

While China is the obvious rival, India doesn't want to be constrained by the US and its allies either and will stick up for its own interests on matters such as energy security. For Prime Minister Narendra Modi, this year's hosting of the G-20 is an opportunity to leverage India's growing strategic and economic heft.

India's geopolitical importance to the US and its allies has increased as American policy makers seek to thwart Beijing's rise, with an increased focus on the Quad grouping that also includes Japan and Australia. Already the world's most-populous nation according to some estimates, India is one of the fastest-expanding economies at a time of sluggish growth around the globe, luring companies like Apple Inc. to expand.