The G-20 Summit in New Delhi on September 9-10 has sparked excitement across the world as, for the first time this multilateral body has taken cognizance of the problems of the global south comprising 125 countries. This comes at the initiative and insistence of India. Both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and S Jaishankar are very clear that the problems of the world post-pandemic and due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict have shown how interdependent the world is. Even a small virus that came alive in one corner of the world afflicted the entire humanity with disastrous consequences. It sank the fortunate of many well-off nations and made the world realize how interdependent the countries are. Besides, the developing countries were hit the hardest. India, as a leading developing nation, has taken the lead in speaking for the Global South which is facing an acute food crisis due to the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Besides climate change will be a major issue in front of the G-20 leaders and so would be the expansion of the body with the inclusion of countries or blocs of the global south like the African Union. It may be mentioned the European Union is a member of the G-20. Now India and China are supporting the membership of AU in G-20. India as chair of the group will be credited with making the body so powerful and people-centric. EAM Jaishankar’s remark that the G-20 is the modern multilateral global body while the UN is outdated is significant. The UN has stopped the process of rebooting or modernization. Five countries with veto power hold the apron strings of the body giving no chance to the emerging forces like India to have the same powers. The baton of G-20 will be passed on to Brazil, another strong contender for the permanent membership of the UN Security Council.