The G20 showed India’s foreign policy is exploring new territory
G20 summit successfully concluded in New Delhi last week, it managed to generate some positive headlines for India globally. Even India’s staunchest critics had to concede that contrary to their expectations, New Delhi managed to pull off a successful summit at a time when geopolitical and developmental fault-lines have been sharpening by the day. Despite the absence of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin (and perhaps because of it), a large part of the world agreed and put its stamp on India’s global developmental priorities.
A strong message has gone out from New Delhi that India is now, more than ever, willing to lead from the front and shedding its perpetual reticence of yore. But the real story of the G20 is not about the global multilateral order and its challenges. Failing and flailing multilateralism is not going to be revived anytime soon just because India believes that it should or that India managed to bring the African Union into the hallowed confines of the G20.
The revival of global institutions depends on how key stakeholders, especially major powers, relate to each other as the balance of power evolves rapidly. India as a middle power can only try to push for greater dynamism by reminding the world that existing global institutions are not at all representative of the emerging world order. Therefore, the real story at the G20 was what it revealed of underlying trends in India’s foreign policy trajectory.
The G20 process and outcomes this year have been a saga of New Delhi coming to terms with its own foreign policy priorities. The most significant trend shaping Indian external engagement today is the extraordinary convergence between Washington and New Delhi. The fact that
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