India’s G20 presidency: A catalyst for revitalizing global cooperation

livemint.com:

covid-19 pandemic, but global growth remains fragile and inflation stubbornly persistent. The increasing frequency of extreme weather events — July was the hottest month on record — has made clear that urgent progress is needed on climate action and other sustainable development goals y(SDGs) during this “decade of action". Yet, at this moment when the need for collaborative action is so apparent, geopolitical competition and confrontation risks are outpacing cooperation.

In considering this difficult global landscape, perhaps India’s most consequential decision—and its most instructive — was not to shy away from a cooperative approach for the G20 deliberative process. In fact, India did something more: it doubled down and leaned into a cooperative approach by steering a highly inclusive process. It is this multilateral and multistakeholder approach, which included voices across geographies and communities, that aims to serve as a model for revitalizing global cooperation.

This is critical at a time when the world urgently needs to find ways to make progress on our shared priorities. India expanded the focus of the G20 dialogue geographically by making it a priority to include voices of the Global South — a grouping of countries that represents 85% of the global population, but whose “role or voice" is often not included in multilateral dialogues, as Prime Minister Modi noted. In the first months of its presidency, India convened a Voice of the Global South Summit that included participation of leaders and ministers from 125 countries, the aim of which was to consult with countries not represented by the G20 to better understand their priorities.