G20 Summit: The consensus document is a testimony to India's leadership on the global stage, he said.
While we had consensus on the most important issues facing mankind today -- sustainable development, growth, reform of multilateral institutions, women-led development -- the geopolitical issue of the Ukraine war threw a spanner in the works as the global ideological divide cuts across the G20, the Delhi Summit's Chief Coordinator Harsh Vardhan Shringla said, explaining how India handled its year of presidency.
Speaking to NDTV, Mr Shringla said India is well-placed to tackle the issue as in addition to being a regular invitee to the G7 (an informal bloc of industrialised democracies - the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the United Kingdom) and a member of the Quad (a strategic security dialogue between Australia, India, Japan, and the United States), we are also members of the BRICS (a group of major emerging economies - Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (a Eurasian political, economic, international security, and defence organisation established by China and Russia).
The fact that we got a consensus document with all partner countries agreeing to a formulation that suits their requirements is testimony to the importance of the G20 process, the need for a grouping like G20 to address global issues, and it's also a testimony to India's leadership on the global stage, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's own stature in that regard, Mr Shringla further said.
The geopolitical section of the Delhi declaration have a distinct imprint of India's position on the issue -- reference to the UN charter, international sovereignty and territorial integrity, looking at such issues through diplomacy and dialogue, and the position that today's era is not an era of war -- the G20 coordinator said.