New Delhi Declaration: It’s a document of hope
Narendra Modi to Russian President Vladimir Putin. For a substantive outcome, consider what the world gains from Russia’s own back-down. In unison, the G20 has called for a revival of the Black Sea grain deal.
As a signatory, Moscow must ease its export blockade and end the shortage it had caused. In getting both sides to bend, New Delhi leveraged its neutrality and acted as a voice for the Global South, though its credentials of the latter were affirmed best by the African Union’s inclusion as a permanent member of the group. The hug between Modi and the Union’s chairperson Azali Assoumani was met with well deserved applause, as the 55-state regional grouping joins as a bloc, a privilege only the EU had.
That India played the Global South’s champion was evident in much else that was agreed upon, such as the group’s approach to debt relief, climate challenges and global governance, with a special G20 emphasis on reforms of multilateral institutions for better outcomes. How institutional power actually widens out under the current world order will be watched closely, but knobs set in that direction as a pledge are a start. The urgency of this exercise must not be lost.
China has pitched for the same role with a string of big money moves. But Beijing has also signalled a will to reset the global order by the dictates of its own hegemony. If the appeal of BRICS as an anti-West forum is to diminish across the emerging world, as the West would surely want, a Western embrace of inclusion in its true global sense is a must.
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