New Delhi: Ukraine is likely to be the centre of attention at the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting that begins in Delhi on March 1 and 2. The finance ministers’ meet held last week has already indicated that the West is keen to put all its energies behind trying to corner Russia.
According to The Tribune, it is unclear whether India – currently the G20 president, a fact that the Union government has been advertising for months – will agree to Ukrainian foreign minister Dmitry Kuleba addressing the gathering via a video link. Ukrainian finance minister Serhiy Marchenko did not address the G20 finance ministers’ meet last week.
At the Bengaluru finance ministers’ meeting, India had refrained from raising the Ukraine issue, in line with its neutral stance on the issue and reiteration of its view that diplomatic channels should be employed to resolve the crisis. Financial Times reported that the G20 meeting ended “in discord” as Russia and China refuse to condemn Ukraine war. The newspaper wrote that the “India’s finance minister would not say whether her country was among the nations that backed the criticism.”
Because of the differing opinions on Ukraine, the finance ministers’ meeting ended without a joint statement. In the place of a joint statement, a G20 Chair’s Summary and Outcome Document was released, underlining the positions expressed by member countries in relation to Russia-Ukraine war.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor in an interview with Karan Thapar for The Wire elaborated on how this has been a diplomatic setback for India asked if India is unable to stand up for its own principles and beliefs, “Will India count at all?”
He said yesterday that there’s a damaging contradiction in India’s position on Ukraine as a result of which the G20 finance ministers’ meeting in Bengaluru last weekend was “an absolute setback for Indian diplomacy”. The contradiction Tharoor – a former minister of state for external affairs – was alluding to is the fact that on the one hand, India repeatedly claims this is not an era of war yet is reluctant to call what’s happening in Ukraine a war and simply refuses to criticise Russia for starting it.
The plan by the Modi government to host the Quad foreign ministers’ meeting on the sidelines of the G20 — with external affairs minister S. Jaishankar, US secretary of state Antony Blinken, Australian foreign minister Penny Wong and Japanese foreign minister Hayashi (who has yet to confirm, according to The Hindu), is likely to be seen as poking China in the eye.
Any balance sought to be arrived at by having no statements will likely cease to be balance with the scheduled Quad meeting taking place soon after.
It seems likely, The Hindu reported, that the foreign ministers’ meeting too will end without a joint statement. “A final call will be made on Tuesday and Wednesday, as India’s Sherpa Amitabh Kant leads talks with Sherpas of other G20 nations, ahead of the G20 Foreign Ministers’ meeting on March 1. If they fail to reach a consensus, India hopes to put out a “Chairman’s outcome statement” similar to the one issued at the Finance Ministers’ meeting in Bengaluru, said officials, where “most” countries signed on to paragraphs dealing with the Ukraine war, and Russia and China agreed to the statement apart from those paragraphs,” the report notes.
Alok Sheel, a former IFS officer who has represented India at several G20 meetings, wrote in Mint that “the bar for Delhi’s G20 Summit may have been set in Bengaluru.” He expressed concern about adequate diplomatic preparation for an important meeting. “Judging from the outcomes in Bengaluru, it is not clear whether adequate attention is being given to quiet behind-the-scenes diplomacy ahead of G20 meetings to forge an agreed agenda and consensus on which a successful summit, geopolitical gains and soft power ultimately rest.”