G20: India’s platform for global leadership
The HinduThe G20 was born out of the Asian financial crisis 25 years ago. As leader of the G20 this year, India could watch this happen — as appears to have been the case with the Finance Ministers’ gathering at Bengaluru — or strengthen the organisation. Difficult road for India At the G20 Finance Ministers’ meet last week, when for the first time ever, the group could not agree on an outcome document, India found itself in the uneasy situation of having to explain whether it supported its own Chair’s summary, which noted that the majority of states condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and rejected the use or the threat of use of nuclear weapons. Japan’s Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki observed that Russia’s invasion had upended the ‘foundations of the global order’, making it ‘difficult for the G20 to engage in constructive discussion.’ Condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not about supporting the United States or encouraging NATO expansion: it is about upholding the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity enshrined in the UN Charter, which Russian military action in Ukraine, with the avowed intention of regime change, has undermined. Ironically, India reportedly played a vital role last year in helping the Bali summit reach consensus, with the final document echoing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s remark to President Putin that “now is not the time for war.” It would be a tragedy if India saved the Bali summit but lost the New Delhi one because it was unable to take a position on upholding the principles of another international organisation.