Delhi Declaration: ‘Ruthless negotiations paved way, leadership wanted it’
G20 Leaders Summit
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, September 9: Indian G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant gave an overview on the way to arrive at a consensus which led to the adoption of the Delhi Declaration, saying that “ruthless negotiations led to the agreement”.
“The leadership was clear that this has to be done,” said Kant, while addressing a presser along with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. He also stated that the emerging economies played a key role in helping arrive at a consensus.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at around noon had told the heads of the states that the consensus had been arrived. “Prime Minister did speak to a number of states when he was in Jakarta for the East Asia Summit on what were there on the agenda for the G20 declaration. Prime Minister was talking to leaders on issues, and all that were determining for the outcomes,” said Jaishankar.
He also stated that the admission of the African Union in the G20 in a record time was made possible as part of a commitment made to the President of Senegal in Bali last year of the non-representation of the commitment.
Kant stated that India worked with Indonesia and Brazil to work out the consensus for the Delhi Declaration. “The emerging economies worked for the consensus,” said Kant, who added that the Delhi Declaration is the most ambitious statement emerging out of the G20 Summits.
Jaishankar also underlined that the G20 is not a forum for geo-political issues, stressing that the group is meant to arrive at a roadmap for economic partnerships. Yet, he said that there are eight paragraphs in the Delhi Declaration dealt with the geo-political issues. Jaishankar stressed on the stress in the Delhi Declaration on issues which are affecting the developing nations in the aftermath of the Ukraine War, which included food security, fuel prices and fertilizers.
Sceptics were rooting their arguments on Russia and China to derail the consensus in the Indian G20 presidency. But China changed tack to support the negotiations, possibly because of the negotiations and back channel done on the part of the emerging economies.
Jaishankar also argued that China was very supportive of various outcomes, while stating that it is for the countries to decide the level of leadership that will represent them at the Summit. He was speaking on Chinese President Xi Jinping skipping the G20 Summit.
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