It wasn't a good start for India's rotating presidency of the G20 group when both the meeting of the bloc's finance ministers and the gathering of its foreign ministers ended without joint final declarations.
| Overview of the G20 meeting in New Delhi, India on March 2. Photo: AFP/VNA |
These results were nothing but a bad omen for India's ambitions for the G20 presidency, which it took over from Indonesia. The reason is the war in Ukraine, the deep division among G20 members over this war, and how to deal with Russia. The group is divided into several factions. The war in Ukraine continues to dominate the general agenda of the G20, overshadowing all other issues that originally created the historically born mission, role and influence of the bloc in world politics.
India intends to focus its G20 presidency on addressing issues related to the global South or developing countries, prioritizing climate change, food and energy security, and the debt problems of the world's poor and least developed countries. But members of the group could not "reconcile positions" on Ukraine and "there were divergences" on issues related to the conflict. Therefore, the group cannot move forward on its way to becoming "the world government" as it would like the world to see it. It is not the right time for India to hold the G20 presidency successfully.
In general, it is not a good time for the G20 either. The members of the Western bloc have turned this forum into a battlefield against Russia, using all the activities of the bloc as an opportunity to rally the G20 members for their confrontation with Russia. Russia is on the opposite side, while China and many other members of the group do not allow themselves to be used to serve the intentions and interests of the West within the G20. Some other members seek neutrality and oscillate between the above factions. The G20 has been effectively held hostage and therefore paralyzed for some time now and most likely for some time to come.
The bad news for the G20 and the world is that one can't expect much from this bloc because of the current internal constellation within the group. The group remains too preoccupied with itself. It is moving further and further away from becoming and being globally recognized as a possible world government. This is bitter and even a bit tragic for this very influential and powerful world institution.Disclaimer: The views expressed by Ambassador Tran Duc Mau are his own and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Hanoi Times.
