No footnote or summary from the chairman and a 100 percent consensus on the G20 Delhi statement underline “India’s ability to bring countries together”, French diplomatic sources told NDTV, praising the negotiating capabilities of New Delhi.
“India has assumed a kind of power and the ability to bring countries together. Not many countries are in a position to negotiate as India has done, that is, to accept everyone’s comments and work out a compromise proposal. This is something important. ,” a French diplomatic source told NDTV.
At a press conference, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said all 83 paragraphs in the statement have been unanimously supported with 100 percent consensus.
“All countries have unanimously supported the New Delhi Leaders Declaration. This is one statement without a single footnote and without any chairman’s summary. This is a complete statement with 100 percent unanimity,” Kant said.
G20 leaders have been deeply divided over the war in Ukraine since Moscow’s invasion last year, with Russian President Vladimir Putin skipping the summit to avoid potential criticism.
Host country India urged members to agree to a joint statement that toned down previous condemnation of the war. Ultimately, the G20 denounced the use of force for territorial gain but refrained from directly criticizing Russia by name.
“There were different views and assessments of the situation,” the leaders’ statement said.
From our point of view, this is a very satisfactory statement from the G20, the French source said.
“The declaration says that all states must refrain from conquering territories by force. Russia is the only country that has done this. All this helps build consensus for the future,” the source added.
“To reach a language of consensus on an issue as divisive as Ukraine, we had to be able to reaffirm what we said in Bali, what we did by recalling the conversation in Bali; we had to refer to the texts of the United Nations, which indeed mentioned; and then we had to confirm a few obvious points, but which are not necessarily obvious to everyone, namely that a war of territorial conquest is unacceptable, that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states must be respected, and that a just and lasting peace must respect these principles. All this is well incorporated into the text and, like our main goal at this Summit, allows us to look ahead to what should be the solution for a just and lasting peace at the end of the world. war in Ukraine,” the source further said.
The G20 Indian Sherpa added that the New Delhi Declaration has a “huge India story” and will leave a huge Indian footprint at the G20.
