The View From India | Why the G20 matters for India

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The G20 Summit that kicks off in Bali, Indonesia today (November 14) has a special significance for India, which will take over the Presidency from December 1, 2022 for a one-year period and host next year’s summit. 

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads to Bali, food security and environment issues are high on the list of India’s priorities, part of a broader agenda of ensuring, as Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra put it ahead of the summit, “a greater voice for the global south in issues of international economic cooperation and the need for reformed 21st century institutions”. 

On Tuesday (November 15), the Prime Minister will attend two working sessions on food and energy security and the “Health Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment” followed by a dinner for all G20 leaders. Also of interest are the bilateral meetings that will be held on the sidelines on Tuesday and Wednesday, prior to the Prime Minister’s departure from Bali on Wednesday afternoon. Suhasini Haidar reports that the PM will have a number of bilateral interactions including with U.S. President Joe Biden, the new U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and French President Emmanuel Macron, but as of Monday, no meeting had been announced with the Chinese President Xi Jinping. The Indian and Chinese leaders have not spoken since a November 2019 meeting in Brasilia, amid the continuing chill in relations. 

Speaking to the The Hindu on the eve of the summit, Ambassador Ina Krisnamurthi said Indonesia is encouraging all G20 leaders to meet and resolve issues at the upcoming summit in Bali. Indonesia and India have been working closely together on developing the G20 agenda for the “Global South”. The G20 forum of the world’s largest economies will be steered by emerging economies for the near future: Indonesia this year, India in 2023 and Brazil in 2024. “Our focus is on post-pandemic economic recovery as well as the disruption of global value chains. We have maintained our priorities, even after the war in Ukraine, although many believe that we need to shift that focus, because Indonesia maintains its belief that the three priorities most relevant are the future of the world, the future of the earth, and for sure, the future of the Global South (emerging economies),” Ms. Krisnamurthi said.

Asked about the uncertainty over a joint communique being issued at the G20 and threats of a boycott by western countries, Ms. Krisnamurthi said Indonesia had “maintained its priorities even after the war in Ukraine”, which was to ensure that the G20 grouping remains the “primary economic engagement” in the world after the losses due to COVID-19. 

Meanwhile, on a visit to Moscow last week, Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said Russia is India’s “steady and time-testedpartner” and defended the 20-fold increase in India’s oil imports from Russia this year. Speaking after meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister Denis Manturov, he called for dialogue and diplomacy and said India was ready to support any initiative to “de-risk” the situation in Ukraine and promote global stability, although he did not make any specific offer to mediate in Russia-Ukraine talks.