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Opportunities and challenges of India’s G -20 Presidency

India’s G-20 diplomacy is going to be a stage of the country’s global ambitions as well as an
assertion of its role and values in a time of West-Russia-China rivalry

India has assumed the G-20 Presidency, the international political discourse and global agenda are
going to see many new narratives – non-traditional issues, and of course, non-Western assertions.

India’s steady rise on the world stage is a better-late-than-never moment that many world
powers, middle powers, and smaller nations expected and desired to happen, in the hope of a more
balanced world order. Financially, India promises them a vast and demanding market; offers more non-
prescriptive trade relations and investments to smaller nations; carries limited unilateral military and
strategic ambitions, and gets along with both Western and non-Western blocs.

India presents a unique case as a post-colonial political entity that the colonial powers never
expected to survive as a united, democratic, mostly liberal nation-state, thanks to its deeply diverse,
noisy, competitive and argumentative domestic political landscape. Many in the colonial club of the
British Empire were always skeptical about whether India could survive once the colonial rule was lifted.
The prominent Turkish writer and revolutionary Halide Edip Adıvar noted in her India memoir published
in 1935 during her stay among India’s anti-colonial leaders that most British writers she met in London
and New Delhi were doubtful of India’s future because of its complex ethnic, religious, linguistic and
class diversity.

Her book “Inside India” could be seen primarily as an experience of a Westernized Turkish
revolutionary who had also fought a fierce political battle for Türkiye’s independence under the
leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Here, India has come from a suspected collapse to one of the fastest growing economies, second
most populous, successful in uplifting millions from abject poverty, and the world’s biggest hub for
information technology-trained workforce that now aspires to be an unavoidable economic power,
source of security and stability, and permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.

India’s G-20 diplomacy is going to be a stage of India’s global ambitions as well as an assertion of its
role and values in the time of West-Russia-China rivalry. The much-awaited reforms in the U.N.,
international cooperation on cybersecurity, non-traditional issues, developing nations’ growing
dependence on Chinese debt, terrorism, social harmony, North-South Connectivity, maritime security
and connectivity, climate change, regional cooperation, and other issues are going to come up more
prominently than in previous G-20 summits. In the last few decades and recent years especially, India
has become far more vocal about the issues of global governance, which continue to remain West-
centric.

Ties with Russia

Indian Foreign Minister Jai Shankar has recently made a scathing criticism of Europe-centrism asking
Europe “to grow out of the mindset that its problems are the world’s problems, but the world’s problems
aren’t Europe’s problems.” The remark came in the context of growing Western pressure on India to take
a more West-inclined position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict. While India reiterated its support for the
territorial integrity of Ukraine, it insisted that both Russia and the West need to engage in meaningful
dialogue to resolve the crisis.

In another statement, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin
that this was not the era of war. While these statements do not necessarily convince or satisfy Western
expectations, yet, India’s reluctance to join a side empowered several other nations of Asia and Africa to
stay neutral or non-aligned, so much so that even Pakistani politicians publicly said why their country
could not have an independent foreign policy like India’s.

That said, India’s presidency is going to be tested on many issues. Indian diplomats have proven to be
tough negotiators, as they have kept forward their and developing countries’ cases in the climate change
dialogues and the World Trade Organization (WTO) dialogues. One of the main successes of Indian
diplomacy in the past few decades has been to bring out alternative financial institutions led by Asian,
African and Latin American economies. The new financial institutions, the BRICS bank, for example, their
limited financial capability notwithstanding, have offered development loans on much better terms and
conditions that helped growth in developing and poor countries.

The Bretton Woods Institutions have been offering their loans on certain conditions regarding the
countries’ internal policy matters as well. At the same time, India has demonstrated success in helping
multilateralism at all international forums. India knows very well that its rise and acceptance as a global
power does not depend on Western powers’ recognition, but on its own economic performance and
development-centric relations with countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.

If India is going to use its immense diplomatic clout to get a better understanding of developing
nations on issues related to food and energy security, climate change, biodiversity, post-COVID-19 health
care rebuilding, transition to sustainable and green energy, and of course security and stability, order
may be saved from another return of bipolar hegemony. After all, India’s leadership role offers
opportunities and hopes that are missed by China and Russia. It was a good sign that India maintained
good relations with Russia and China in order to support multilateralism and pluralism in the world
system, however, it is Russia and China which have benefited more from India’s sustained non-aligned
foreign policy. The Russian aggression against Ukraine has put India in a precarious situation vis-à-vis
Western and smaller nations. Despite having one of the most confident relations, Russia failed to win
Indian confidence in its Ukraine operation.

India-China relations

Simultaneously, China’s revisionist approach to India-China relations is one of the sources of growing
mistrust. India needs to demonstrate that it represents different values and philosophies, and a different
vision for global peace and harmony, which makes it a model different from Russia and China. India’s
trade relations with African and Asian nations can be seen treading a different path. India has expanded
its line of credit to several countries all over the world easing its dependency on the Western financial
system.

At the same time, Indian diplomats are going to put development and economic cooperation at the
top of their agenda. India’s new economic push could be a new opportunity to revive North-South
cooperation and connectivity as China’s Belt and Road Initiative is said to be in trouble. While India
sought multilateralism with active cooperation in the BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation
(SCO), however, both China and Russia have recently demonstrated aggressive unilateralism in multiple
regional and international disputes.

As India still seeks greater multilateralism, countries outside BRICS and SCO like Türkiye, Indonesia,
Iran, Bangladesh, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia are going to be more important to India’s
development diplomacy. India’s G-20 Presidency is going to be such an exceptional opportunity to reflect
on India’s willingness and preparedness for an advanced role in global politics.