Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had earlier announced that “One Earth, One Family, One Future” will be India’s mantra for G20 Presidency for the summit 2023. He unveiled the logo, theme and website of India’s G20 presidency, demonstrating India’s compassion to bring the world together. India assumed leadership shortly after the Bali conference in Indonesia this November.
The latest summit of world leaders on the scenic island of Bali, ended with a fairly long and somewhat consensual communiqué, and much behind closed doors meetings. Almost all the leaders, including the presidents of China and US have exercised extreme caution to not slip into the fresh Cold War and tried to show they had a cordial meeting with much consensus and understating.
The leaders of G20 countries including Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, the Republic of Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, UK, US and the European Union also displayed to have managed to paper over some obvious divergences, if only for now, providing some indications of what to expect during 2023 as India takes over the G20 presidency.
The G20 was created after the Asian financial crisis in 1999. However, today not only Asian countries, but the entire world has been scrambling with economic difficulties and political issues.
India has a plan to hold over 200 events ahead of G20 summit
After assuming G20 presidency from December 1, 2022 for a one year period, India has a plan to hold over 200 events spread across major cities, including New Delhi, the capital city and other cities such as Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, etc, as part of the summit. The events are part of the country’s preparations to hold the summit in 2023, and it will be the highest-profile international gathering ever to be hosted by India.
India has a plan to hold sessions like T-20 summit, think tank summit, W-20 women’s summit and Y-20 youth summit, where these seminars and meetings will focus on health, labor, finance, environment, education, renewable energy, climate change, the pandemic and other important issues across the world.
G20 is the premier forum for international economic cooperation
Indeed, the G20 presidency offers a unique opportunity for India to contribute to the global agenda on pressing issues of international importance, and it is a great platform for the country to reflect India’s message and overarching priorities to the world.
It is a fact that G20 is considered as the premier forum for international economic cooperation as it represents around 85% of global GDP, over 75% of global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.
Primer Modi said his country has been leading the renewable energy revolution with “one sun, one world, and one grid” and also India strengthened the global health initiative with “One Earth, One Health,” and with this G20 summit, now India leads “One Future”. The premier acknowledged all previous governments’ efforts, as well as citizens’ efforts, to move India forward and make it capable of holding such an important event.
India said Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain, and the UAE will be the “guest countries” at the event.
India is also part of the G20 Troika
India is currently part of the G20 Troika “the current, previous, and incoming G20 presidencies” comprising Indonesia, Italy, and India, and India’s Ministry of External Affair announced that its presidency, India, Indonesia, and Brazil would form the troika. This would be the first time that the troika would consist of three developing countries and emerging economies, according to the ministry, which believes it would provide them with a more powerful voice.
Priorities for the upcoming summit are being “firmed up” and discussions among all member countries will include issues related to “women’s empowerment, digital public infrastructure, health, agriculture, education, culture, tourism, climate financing, the circular economy, global food security, energy security, green hydrogen, disaster risk reduction and resilience, the fight against economic crime, and multilateral reforms.”
G20 countries in the span of 23-year have held discussions amid reviewing policy to promote international financial stability.
What India means by One Earth, One Family, and One Future
The year 2023 will give all chances for India to show the world what New Delhi is really looking for, and meaning by their theme, “One Earth, One Family, and One Future.” It is a good slogan to create a better opportunity for the global population to overcome their perennial issues.
But it is not easy and India assumes the G20 presidency amid critical geopolitical developments. With the Ukraine war still in full-swing, energy wars continuing around the globe, inflation is speaking loudly in several countries, many countries have been struggling from pandemic, and it won’t be wrong to say that the world is in a state of flux right now.
The crippling situation is truly highlighting the need if the G20 could become pivotal in trying to bring about greater economic and social stability.
Symbolic discussions won’t bear any fruits
India has been looking very excited for hosting the upcoming G20 summit, but yet, there is another real possibility that it will remain a symbolic talking shop with most of the major players remaining aloof without any serious engagement. It seems larger players are merely relying on lip service and the leaders of every country start to negotiate in such a way to observe its national interest alone.
The focus of the G20 was originally on macro-economic issues but as we have seen in Bali, it has now shifted focus and the brief is to discuss any contemporary issue with no long-term policy. The leaders also fail to reach a compromise on contentious political issues like the Ukraine war, ending Taiwan issue, and many more. Another issue is climate change, and the leaders are also not interested in both financing and technological support to achieving climate goals in poorer countries.
India, as a host country, needs to reflect the realities if it really wants success, and one of the tasks is to ensure that western nations, which have arrayed themselves against Russia owing to its war on Ukraine, engage productively to bring about sustainable outcomes.
Many countries have started getting profits from the Russia-Ukraine war, but the fact is that the majority of the countries around the globe are affected in areas of energy shortages, high prices, soaring inflation and rising interest rates. This is the main responsibility of India to see the current realities with open eyes and take some bold steps to convince the leaders for something much practical than some promises on the paper only.
