Back‘300 bilateral meetings, 200 hours of…’: How Indian diplomats made G20 New Delhi Declaration possible
Indian diplomats led 200 hours of non-stop negotiations to reach consensus on G20 declaration, avoiding major embarrassment.
PremiumIndian diplomats led more than “200 hours of non-stop negotiations" to reach a consensus on Saturday's G20 leaders' declaration. The group has struggled to find common ground on several issues recently – including the Ukraine war and climate change. Extensive work by a ‘brilliant’ team however allowed India to avoid a major diplomatic embarrassment.
“The most complex part of the entire G20 was to bring consensus on the geopolitical paragraphs (Russia-Ukraine). This was done over 200 hours of non-stop negotiations, 300 bilateral meetings and 15 drafts. In this, I was greatly assisted by two brilliant officers - joint secretaries Eenam Gambhir and Nagaraj Naidu Kakanur," tweeted G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant.
India managed to hammer out an unexpected consensus among the G20 countries on the contentious issue through a series of hectic negotiations with emerging economies such as Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia playing a leading role in reaching the breakthrough. According to a PTI report quoting sources these three countries also helped in drafting the text that drew every member nation's approval.
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World media has since dubbed the carefully worded declaration a “coup" for host Prime Minister Narendra Modi though the final compromise statement reflected a stand far softer than those the US and its Western allies have adopted on Russia.
(With inputs from agencies)
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