Tough negotiations on Friday night helped India pull off G20 declaration

New Delhi, September 9

Advertisement

A series of hardball negotiations by India with China, Russia and other key Western players and a strong backing by Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia to the efforts helped New Delhi achieve consensus on the G20 declaration, defying fears about whether the document could be issued at all in view of sharp divisions in the bloc on the Ukraine war, diplomatic sources said on Saturday.

India managed well in convincing China to agree to the text relating to the Ukraine conflict after the European Union concurred with the text, they said.

On the first day of the summit on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the G20 leaders’ declaration was adopted with consensus, throwing a major surprise as both the Russia-China combine and the West had indicated that they would not budge from their respective position on the Ukraine conflict.

French diplomatic sources said India had displayed a “kind of power and an ability to bring countries together”, adding not many countries were in a position to negotiate as New Delhi has done to take on board comments from everyone, and work out a compromise proposal on the Ukraine conflict.

It was a tough negotiation and the consensus on the declaration was a great achievement by India, European sources said on the condition of anonymity.

Asked about the absence of the term “Russian aggression” on Ukraine in the declaration which figured in the Bali G20 declaration, the sources said the Western countries were satisfied with the overall outcomes. Another source said India circulated the final draft to the G20 members on Friday night, saying if they do not agree to it, then there will be no declaration.

India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said the negotiations with Russia and China took place last night. — PTI

Nations hail India’s push for Digital Public Infra

New Delhi: The Delhi declaration at the summit on Saturday welcomed the G20 framework for systems of digital public infrastructure — a voluntary framework for the development and governance. “Committed to promoting responsible, sustainable and inclusive use of digital technology by farmers and an ecosystem of agri-tech start-ups and MSMEs,” read the statement.