With the deterioration of the United Nations, the G20 is slowly becoming the vehicle of choice for a section of the developed world. While the UN still retains some of its traditional appeal as a global forum where crucial decisions are made (read bought or sold), the heavily west-tilted institution’s progressive irrelevance on the face of an emergent multipolar world makes the new entrants like the G20 or BRICS appear fitter and faster. As a result, more and more nations seek to optimally utilize such forums.
But first things first! The recently concluded G20 summit symbolizes a series of important triumphs for India. New Delhi G20 is celebrated for amplifying the voices of the Global South with the inclusion of the African Union. The forum, as India’s foreign minister Dr S Jaishankar hopes, would recognize from now on, the issues that the Global South faces: tangled between poverty, debt traps, and fuel and food crises amidst international politics. New Delhi Summit brought the collective G20 leadership on a plane of acknowledgement of the plight of the poor and developing nations.
That aside, the carefully constructed statement that stayed away from venturing too deep into the future of oil and gas as non-renewable energy resources while asserting about the importance of green energy, held reasons to put broad smiles on the faces of the Middle Eastern oil and gas producers along with Russia. Another big plus was that the entire volume of all the 83 paragraphs banked on 100 per cent consensus – not even a footnote got added! This is extremely crucial, since the Russian FM Sergey Lavrov was categorical about the fact that if there was a general G20 statement in the pipeline, that must include positions of all members.
All in all, it was a cerebral win for the team that worked behind the scenes and put together an event that would be remembered, or rued among certain quarters, for times to come.
Who are the unhappy ones? The western media, for one! From BBC to Guardian and Reuters, the editorials are making no effort to hide their disappointment that the summit statement, unlike the one from the Bali G20, doesn’t villainize Russia. Some among them have even gone ahead – mindlessly, I have to add – and speculated that President Biden went with the flow to lend some legitimacy to PM Modi; a summit minus a joint statement would have made Modi look useless, hence this show of solidarity.
I don’t know what analysts the western media hires these days, or the kind of readership they think they cater to that they excel in throwing around lazy arguments with zero accountability. This opinion, that Joe Biden helped PM Modi with a face saver at G20 is an appropriate example. Let us scrutinize a couple of points.
What the western media missed in their characteristic sloppiness is a below-the-radar event: an unannounced 6th September trip of Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Kiev. During his visit, Blinken made no effort to hide the change in his tone. His official communication to Ukraine made sure to steer clear of criticizing Russia, or push for counter-offensive, or retake Russian territories, or threaten the Kremlin with drones. Instead, it spoke about democracy and rule of law. Blinken probably even oversaw (this is a guess) the appointment of the new Defence Minister of Ukraine, Rustem Umerov (a candidate of choice of White House) – someone who was instrumental behind the grain deal with Russia; someone who the Russians do not mind talking to. There is a war going on with Russia there, one where the USA is actively arming and supporting Ukraine, yet not even once did Blinken bring up Putin or the Kremlin.
A reasonable question is ‘why’. And the answer to that, is the upcoming US elections.
So, it seems that the western media has got it wrong, yet again. And under that light, Joe Biden did not save Modi’s face; in fact it looks the other way around. With the general American population displeased about another disastrous war funded by US taxpayers money and with Republican candidates scoring higher and higher on popularity charts, a climb down was on the cards – the G20 summit statement, PM Modi, and his team were handy shoulders to lean on. As far as India optimizing this summit to consolidate its position as the representative of the Global South – that was probably the bargain that Joe Biden had to agree to. Where does that leave PM Modi in case Donald Trump wins? As the storyteller in The Legend of Total Drama Island says, ‘that is a story for another time’.
Who else is unhappy? A section of the western leadership among the EU states! And Justin Trudeau! But like always, they don’t have much choice apart from tagging along with the USA. The best they can do is to give cues to their media to blame India and Modi, which has begun already.
Interestingly, there is yet another section – among Indians – that is also quite unhappy with what India accomplished in this G20. But I guess you know that by now and are following the developments quite closely.
(Arindam Mukherjee is a geopolitical analyst and the author of JourneyDog Tales, The Puppeteer, and A Matter of Greed.)
Note: Views expressed are the author’s own.