During session 2 of the first day of the G20 Summit being held in Delhi, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the leaders of the bloc have arrived at a consensus on a leaders’ declaration. Addressing the session, PM Modi said that consensus on the New Delhi G20 Leaders Summit Declaration has been reached, calling it good news.
He said that the consensus was achieved with the hard work of the teams and the cooperation of all the participants. PM Modi then proposed to adopt the declaration, and the G20 leaders adopted the declaration.
“I congratulate my ministers, Sherpa, all officials who worked hard for it and made it possible,” PM Modi added. The PM further said, “India’s G20 Presidency has been the most ambitious in the history of G-20. With 112 outcomes and presidency documents, we have more than doubled the substantive work from previous presidencies.”
Reportedly, the G20 under India’s presidency have achieved 73 outcomes or lines of effort and 39 annexed presidency documents, totalling 112. This is the highest number of outcomes and presidency documents in the G20 history and is substantially more than previous presidencies.
Talking about the development, India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said that with the adoption of the Delhi Declaration, “today’s era must be marked as the golden age of human-centric globalisation”. He added that India’s G20 Presidency under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi has worked tirelessly towards this goal.
Media had claimed there would be no joint statement
The consensus on the Delhi Declaration was significant because there were speculations in the media that the G20 Leaders’ Summit would end without a joint statement. Several media reports had claimed that a joint communique was unlikely due to differences between member nations, especially disagreements between Russia and Western countries over the war in Ukraine.
Notorious fake news peddler, The Wire had claimed that there would be no Delhi Declaration as the West had rejected India’s compromise text on contentious matters. It had said that the text drafted by India on the Ukraine war did “not go far enough” to be accepted by G7 and EU members.
Similarly, the Mint had said that India’s G20 Presidency could be the first to not issue a joint declaration at the end of the summit. The report stated that Russia and China were opposing use of strong language over the Ukraine war issue. Similarly India Today had predicted that the absence of Putin and Jinping at the Summit would mean there would be no joint statement.
There were other issues with disagreements, like climate issues and the reduction in the use of fossil fuels. Several earlier G20 meetings, including ministerial meetings and the meeting of the Sherpas, failed to arrive at a consensus on these issues, fuelling the speculation that a joint declaration would not be possible. It was reported that the drafts prepared by India were not found sufficient by several nations.
However, at the end, Indian officials worked hard and were able to prepare a draft acceptable to all. The details of the New Delhi G20 Leaders’ Summit Declaration have not been made public yet.