Delhi Declaration at G20 ‘undoubtedly a diplomatic triumph’ says Shashi Tharoor ‘but also an attempt...’

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ANI, Shashi Tharoor said, “The Delhi Declaration is undoubtedly a diplomatic triumph for India. It's a good achievement because right until the G20 summit was being convened, the widespread expectation was there would be no agreement and, that, therefore, a joint communique might not be possible, and, that we might have to end up with a chairman's summary." Moreover, the Congress MP also praised the Modi govt for bringing all member states to a consensus on the New Delhi Declaration.

“The main reason (for lack of a consensus on the statement) was the big gulf between those who wanted a condemnation of the Russian war in Ukraine and those, like Russia and China, who wanted no mention whatsoever of that subject. India was able to find a formula to bridge that gap and that is a significant diplomatic achievement because when there is a Summit without a joint communique, it is always seen as a setback for the chairman," Tharoor added as quoted by ANI.

However, he also criticised the ruling party and said that it was also an attempt by the "ruling party" (BJP) to turn the mega huddle of world leaders into an "asset" for themselves. "But it was also an attempt by the ruling party to instrumentalize the G20 as something that would turn out to be an asset for them," Tharoor said.

“Things that were remarkable about the government's conduct of the presidency was that they did something that no previous G20 presidency has done. They actually made it a nationwide event, 200 meetings in 58 cities with huge amount of action, they converted the G20 into a sort of people G20.

With public events, the university connect programmes, civil societies, all these things were done under our presidency. That is in some ways both a credit to