G20: Will the Delhi summit conclude without a leaders’ declaration?

Delhi will host the Group of 20 leaders’ summit this weekend, the crescendo of India’s presidency of the multilateral forum.

India has used its G20 presidency mainly to project itself as the true representative of the developing economies of the Global South in a forum of the world’s richest countries. However, despite Delhi’s claims to have bridged divisions, India’s G20 presidency has struggled to secure consensus on commonplace communiques.

There is a distinct possibility that, in a first, the G20 leaders may not agree on a joint communique at the Delhi summit amid hardening of opposing views on the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Delhi summit

The G20, comprising the world’s 19 largest economies and the European Union, focuses on global economic issues. It was created in 1999 after the East Asian financial crisis for consultations among finance ministers and central bank governors. It was elevated to the leaders’ level in 2008 following the global financial crisis.

The members represent around 85% of the global gross domestic product and over 75% of global trade. The forum’s non-binding decisions are based on consensus. Despite the G20 being an economic forum, it is often dominated by geopolitics such as in 2022 over the Russia-Ukraine war.

The G20 presidency – the country setting the agenda and hosting the...

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