G20 achieved much more on Russia-Ukraine than UN: Sherpa Amitabh Kant
Aditi Tandon
New Delhi, September 23
India’s G20 presidency has achieved more on the Russia-Ukraine crisis than the UN, India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said on Friday noting that 200 hours of negotiations, 230 bilaterals and a lot of hard work went into achieving what everyone thought was impossible.
“We worked in partnership with Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa, brought all emerging economies together and drafted eight very powerful paras on Russia and Ukraine that spoke of political independence and sovereignty, elements that were not there in the Bali Declaration. Once the emerging economies were on board, we pushed back G7 and Russia. Sherpas of South Africa, Brazil and Indonesia said this was the best draft. Ultimately it was adopted with 100 per cent consensus shocking everyone because most people did not believe this was possible. All 14 ministerial meetings held earlier had chair summaries. Ultimately we brought multilateralism back and became the voice of the developing countries,” said Kant.
Addressing a select group of journalists, Kant mentioned that renaming of G20 after the inclusion of the African Union as a permanent member was a matter to be discussed at the next leaders’ meet.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had while addressing the New Delhi G20 Leaders’ Summit on September 9 and 10 called for a virtual meeting of the leaders in November.
“G77 also has many members but that does not mean its original name gets changed. G20 name is an issue for discussion at the next leaders’ meet,” Kant said.
In important remarks, the Indian Sherpa spoke of G20 agreements — the high-level principles on anti-corruption as unprecedented.
“Of course these will be taken to the Financial Action Task Force in future for drafting of common parameters on anti-corrpution,” Kant said.
He also dwelt on the importance of achieving negotiated consensus amid global crises. “India’s G20 Presidency comes at a time when 75 countries are facing a debt crisis, 12% of the 169 Sustainable Development Goals are on track and one third of the world is facing recession. Yet the Indian presidency has been the most ambitious and has delivered maximum outcomes at 112,” said Kant.
He said the New Delhi Declaration was the strongest on climate action; women-led development, digital public infrastructure and green development.
“This is the first time that the G20 laid out financial targets for climate action,” the Sherpa noted.
His reference was to the need of USD 5.8 trillion-5.9 trillion in the pre-2030 period for developing countries and USD 4 trillion per year for clean energy technologies by 2030 to reach net zero emissions by 2050 flagged in the Green Development Pact for a Sustainable Future, a major outcome of the New Delhi Summit.
