G20: Bengaluru discord

The G20 is evidently split over taking a position on Ukraine. The finance ministers of the elite club, during their meeting in India’s silicon city of Bengaluru, struggle to cobble over the vocabulary of the joint communique. The positions are as clear as the perspectives over the conflict in the heart of Europe, which has devastated an uneasy peace prevailing since 1945. China wants to take a neutral position, but at the same time refuses to call it a Russo-Ukrainian War. Whereas, the emboldened European Union, injected with unflinching American support, wants to replicate the G20 Bali Leaders’ Declaration in November that castigated Russia. The Catch-22 situation here is that India is host, and it itself is unwilling to condemn Moscow, as it enjoys a nexus of defence cooperation with it.

This discord is just the tip of the iceberg, and there is much beneath to deliberate and disagree. Russian aggression against Ukraine has literally challenged the unipolarity of the globe, and there are choosers on either side of the divide. China, for all practical reasons, is a beneficiary as it sees the conflict put the United States at loggerheads with Russia, and at the same time galvanise Moscow to challenge Washington’s leadership role. Both enjoy the common denominator that Nato’s so-called expansion towards the East must stop at Ukraine’s doorstep, and Kyiv should desist from replaying the Orange rules. The most evident piece of diplomacy at Bengaluru was the pushing up of China’s 12-point agenda calling for a ‘political settlement’ in Ukraine, to which there were not many takers.

The two-day meeting, however, was non-receptive to concerns on the economy and lacked a formidable strategy on food security, accessible energy, restoring supply chain and disbursement of loans to developing states. Notwithstanding IMF’s plea that 15% of low-income countries were in debt distress and China calling for restructuring their loans, no practical headway was on the cards. Rather, the thrust was on sanctioning Russia and Iran, who are using technology clout to hamper American ambitions in Ukraine.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 27^th, 2023.

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