Opinion Express View on G20 and Global South: Right place, right time

In diplomacy especially, timing matters. India’s presidency of the G20 came at a time when the world was undergoing a geo-political churn. The Russia-Ukraine war had impacted the global economy after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. The economic shock of these twin events had a deep impact on developing and under-developed countries — the war came at a time when these countries were just trying to get back on their feet with the post-pandemic economic recovery. As New Delhi took over the presidency in December last year, it seized the opportunity to bring together the large group of about 120 countries that were bearing the brunt of the war. The Voice of Global South summit brought in the views from these countries, and India promised to place their ideas and concerns on the G20 high table.

India’s presidency was preceded and succeeded by that of other members of the Global South — Indonesia was the 2022 G20 chair, and Brazil was going to be next year’s chair in 2024, followed by South Africa in 2025. The fact that for four successive years, members of the Global South are chairing the G20 offered another opportunity. And, then India moved the proposal to invite the African Union as the 21st member of the grouping. Including 55 countries in all, the AU comprises almost half of the Global South. This was in sync with New Delhi’s outreach to Africa since 2008 — in 2015, India hosted the India-Africa Forum summit which was attended by 40 leaders from the African continent. In the last few years, India has committed more diplomatic resources towards Africa — it has announced 18 new embassies, which will take the number from 39 to 47 in the continent. The proposal had important backers in the US, France and China — an almost bipartisan consensus emerged across the geopolitical aisle.

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So, the timing was apt when India proposed that the African Union should be part of G20, as part of the Global South push to make the grouping more representative. Both the moves of the Voice of Global South and the inclusion of AU were mutually reinforcing and they helped India to craft a diplomatically nuanced language on the Russia-Ukraine war in the joint communique, the New Delhi G20 Leaders’ Declaration. Both warring parties in the G20 — the G7-led western grouping and the Russia-China bloc — acknowledged the concerns of the Global South, it became the key fulcrum, and the diplomatic outcome was clear with the entry of the African Union, lending weight to the seven paragraphs on the Ukraine conflict. They captured not just the impact in terms of the economic consequences, but also the political fallout when a powerful country invades a smaller neighbour. India’s presidency achieved consensus for the joint communique with its careful combination of the right diplomatic timing and wide strategic vision.