The Author is Former Director General of Information Systems and A Special Forces Veteran, Indian Army

The 100th G20 meeting under India’s Presidency was held at Varanasi on April 17, 2023 in the form of a conference of Chief Agriculture Scientists. As part of its G20 presidency, India had planned 200 meetings across fifty cities. One confidential G20 meeting held at Itanagar, capital of Arunachal Pradesh in March 2023 set China’s tail afire and it skipped the meeting as expected. India is hosting the third G20 Tourism Working Group meeting in Srinagar between May 22 and 24, 2023. This also would likely give stomach ache to both Beijing and Islamabad; participation by China and Pakistan is therefore unlikely.

The main event to watch is the 18th G20 Summit scheduled to be held at the International Exhibition-Convention Centre, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi on September 9-10. To be attended by Heads of States, it is the first ever G20 summit to be hosted in India and also in South Asia

The theme of the G20 Summit 2023 is ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ which means ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’. India has put forth following six agenda priorities for the G20 dialogue in 2023:

1. Green development, climate finance & LiFE;
2. Accelerated, inclusive & resilient growth;
3. Accelerating progress on SDGs;
4. Technological transformation & digital public infrastructure;
5. Multilateral institutions for the 21st century, and;
6. Women-led development.

The leaders expected to participate are the Presidents of Argentina, Brazil, China, France, South Korea, Mexico, Turkey, USA, European Commission, EU, Prime Ministers of Australia, Canada, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, UK and the German Chancellor. The invited guests include the Presidents of the African Union, Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda and UAE, Prime Ministers of Bangladesh, Mauritius, Netherlands, Singapore, Spain and the Sultan of Oman.

In addition, guests invited from the international organisations include President of the Asian Development Bank, DG of Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, Chairperson of Financial Stability Board, MD of IMF, DG of International Labour Organisation, DG of International Solar Alliance, Secretary General of Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development, Secretary General of United Nations, President of World Bank, Director General WHO and Director General WTO. The Indian participants include Chairman Tata Group, Chairman and MD Bajaj Finserv., Chairman RPSG Group and Founder of Dalit Chamber of Commerce and Industry have also been invited.

International financial institutions like the World Economic Forum (WEF), World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) must be suitably restructured to include fair representation and rotational heads from all regions of the world

The US and the EU want to include Ukraine in the 2023 G20 Summit at New Delhi, and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to address the summit. The recent visit to India by Ukraine Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova was in this context, apparently prompted by the US and EU. Zelensky has also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi with the same requests. However, permitting this would not be appropriate since a forum like the G20 is meant to discuss policy coordination for economic stability in the world, promote financial regulations that reduce risks and prevent financial crises – not to further strategic interests of the West or any country. Moreover, whether Russia invaded Ukraine of its own volition or was forced to do so on account of NATO expansion are debatable issues.

The six agenda priorities mentioned above are well chosen, which should lead to constructive policy decisions, framework and follow up action plans. But at the same time, there are other issues affecting the global financial system and supply chains that have become more prominent over the last few years including with the ongoing war in Ukraine; which run contrary ‘Vasudhaiva Ktumbakam’ or ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’. Some of these are mentioned as under:

• No country should be allowed to unilaterally impose sanctions on another country without the express sanction of the United Nations if it causes disruption in the global supply chains and creates energy and food shortages adversely affecting the world at large and hunger and strife in poorer nations.
• Arbitrary freezing money of individual nations in their Central Banks amounts to economic terrorism. The US handed over Afghanistan to the Taliban on a platter and then froze Afghan money in its Central Bank. Similarly, the US has frozen Russian and Iranian money in their respective Central banks. The institution of Central banks and their control needs to be re-examined in totality in order to ensure fair play.
• Similarly, the arbitrary denial of the West-controlled SWIFT system is against the theme of ‘one Earth, One Family, One Future’. The world needs to ‘adopt’ alternatives to the SWIFT system speedily and holistically.
• The US delinked printing of dollars with its gold reserves during the Nixon era. Therefore, it prints unlimited dollars to and influences the global financial system and international trade despite sporting the largest external debt to the tune of $31.5 trillion, which is grossly unfair. The world needs to rapidly de-dollarise. With the INR already bullish, India must insist on trade in INR.
• Acts of international terrorism affecting the global supply chain should not be permitted to go unpunished. In the instant case, the deliberate sabotage of the Russian Nord Stream pipelines is a prominent example. According to Seymour Hersh, this sabotage was executed by the US from the American military base in Finland but an independent international inquiry is definitely warranted.
• International financial institutions like the World Economic Forum (WEF), World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) must be suitably restructured to include fair representation and rotational heads from all regions of the world cutting out undue influence in their functioning from any quarters.

Geostrategic developments in recent years have affected the global financial system and global supply chains and more turbulence is in store with new geopolitical realignments

With agenda priorities for the summit already outlined, it may not be possible to discuss the above mentioned issues in totality. However, these could be introduced in the summit to induce limited discussion in order to place them on record; to be carried forward for discussion in subsequent G20 summits. Brazil is to host the G20 Summit in 2024 followed by South Africa in 2025. Geostrategic developments in recent years have affected the global financial system and global supply chains and more turbulence is in store with new geopolitical realignments. It is about time that discussion on the above issues is called. This would be in the best interest of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’.