NEW DELHI: The situation in Ukraine will be high on the agenda of an upcoming meeting of the Group of 20 foreign ministers, this year’s G20 president India said on Wednesday, as top diplomats from the world’s largest economies began to arrive in New Delhi.
The group’s members are 19 states — Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkiye, the UK, and the US — and the EU.
Together, the 20 economies account for 80 percent of global economic output, nearly 75 percent of exports, and around 60 percent of the world’s population.
Every year, the leaders of G20 members meet to discuss economic and financial matters and coordinate policy on other issues of mutual interest. The group’s annual summit is hosted and chaired by a different member, giving host countries an opportunity to push for action on issues that matter to them.
“Given the nature and developing situation in the Russia and Ukraine conflict, naturally that would be an important point of discussions during the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting,” Vinay Mohan Kwatra, Indian foreign secretary, told reporters at a special press briefing ahead of Thursday’s meeting.
“Also, the impact of the conflict on the rest of the world, particularly economic impact, particularly development impact, challenges the developing countries face because of the conflict, that are equally important to focus on along with the Russian and Ukraine conflict.”
Kwatra said the foreign ministers’ meeting would also focus on food and energy security, as well as counterterrorism and efforts to stop drug trafficking.
The foreign ministers’ gathering will be the second ministerial-level talks since India assumed G20 presidency in December.
Last week, the group’s finance ministers met in Bangalore, where the invasion of Ukraine was also a major theme, which resulted in no communique being issued at the end of the session after Russia and China sought to water down language on the war.
“Russia and Ukraine are certainly going to be major fault lines because as we have seen in the G20 finance ministers’ meeting, Russia and China block the consensus statement. It’s very likely that the same pattern might be repeated in the foreign ministers’ meeting too,” Harsh V. Pant, head of strategic studies at the New Delhi-based Observer Research Foundation, told Arab News.
“India has been trying to frame the agenda around the concerns of the developing world ... but it is very likely that great-power politics will dominate the discourse and agenda.”
As the G20 president, India can invite special non-G20 guests to participate in the group’s meetings. Among the guests will be the UAE, Oman, and Egypt.
The choice of its guests reflects India’s growing engagement with Middle Eastern countries, according to Mohammed Soliman, director of the Strategic Technologies and Cyber Security Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington.
“India’s invitation to Egypt, Oman, and the UAE not only reflects the growing economic and geopolitical interests between the four nations but their growing alignment on global issues — chief among them the Ukraine war, energy, and food security,” Soliman told Arab News.
“In the G20, which in my opinion is the most influential international format, I anticipate that India with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Oman, and the UAE will be part of a rising third pole between the West and the Russia-China axis that seeks to find common ground or some kind of compromise between the opposing great powers.”
