Objective to bring everybody together, find common ground: India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant

India's G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant has said New Delhi's "objective is to bring everybody together" and find a "common ground" amid the West versus Russia divide and Moscow and Beijing not agreeing on certain paras of the Bali declaration. Speaking to WION's diplomatic correspondent Sidhant Sibal, Kant explained, "Irrespective of war in Europe our focus has been on issues of economics, on issues of development, on issues of financial progress, and these are issues of G20. G20 is not a political forum."

The Indian Sherpa or the person who leads the discussion at the grouping expressed his satisfaction with the "constructive" discussions at the second G20 Sherpa meeting in Kerala. Pointing to India's priorities, he highlighted that New Delhi will focus on "inclusive, resilient, and sustainable growth". India is the current chair of the grouping that includes 20 of the largest economies of the world and got its current summit-level structure after the 2008 financial crisis.

Talking about the G20 meeting, Kant said it was extremely positive and constructive. 

"All G20 countries want India to be ambitious, to be decisive, to be action-oriented, much like what the Prime Minister has put the task on us, and therefore, we were very ambitious in this meeting. We discussed all the meetings of the working groups, all 13 working groups we've also discussed how to take the G 20 forward. We've discussed the way forward, and we've discussed all the challenges before us. And let me also say that we are working towards a very, very positive framework. We are working towards this communique where we will look at issues of very inclusive, resilient and sustainable growth," he added. 

Amid the West, versus Russia divide and Russia and China not agreeing on certain paras of the Bali declaration, Kant said the objective is to bring everyone together and that G20 belongs to everyone. 

"Our objective will be to bring everybody together like we played a key role in Bali as well. And that is what we keep attempting. There may be differences now, but I'm quite sure we'll be able to rally everyone together in the end," India's G20 Sherpa said. 

On being asked what role India is playing as a country that can bridge the divide between Russia and the West, Kant Amitabh Kant said "In G20 our task is cut out, that irrespective of war in Europe our focus has been on issues of economics, on issues of development, on issues of financial progress."

He pointed out that G20 is not a political forum. 

"So in Bali, we use the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) language and worked it out. And paras three and four are reflective of what had been discussed in the UNGA. But the focus through the communique was only on development, only on growth, only on progress. And therefore, my view is that this forum should remain focused on that. But as the G7 said there that the issues of war are having an impact on food, fuel, and fertiliser and therefore it is having an impact on the economy. But we use the UNGA language and paras three and four to find a common ground and we will continue to do that," Kant further added. 

Also being asked if he thinks that ultimately there will be an agreement on contentious issues and paragraphs three and four, Kant said "So our attempt will be to, this crisis is not our making."

"We want to solve the problems of the world. The Prime Minister is very clear. He said that we like India to play a key role on be very action-oriented, inclusive, decisive, and ambitious. We will continue to do that. The war in Europe is not our crisis. Our challenge is to look after issues of poverty, slow growth, global debt, looking at issues of climate action, and issues of sustainable development goals."

Kant highlighted that the war in Europe may have impacted one segment of the global population, but there are many other challenges of the world which need to be looked at. 

Kant also said that India's G20 presidency is very people-centric and it is about involving the citizens. "It's about taking the presidency, not restricting it to one or two cities. We're taking it to every state of India, taking it to 59 cities of India, involving the states to push their culture, their art form, the handicraft, the handlooms all of that, and therefore every state, this is a great example of cooperative federalism," he added. 
 

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