Amitabh Kant is India’s sherpa, or personal representative, at the 2023 G20 summit.
New Delhi:
Nearly 200 hours of “non-stop negotiations” were needed to secure a joint communiqué from G20 leaders divided over the bloc’s position on Russia’s war against Ukraine, Indian Sherpa Amitabh Kant told NDTV on Saturday. Kant said the statement was the result of multiple rounds of talks – from discussions with developing countries on the economic impact of the war to bilateral meetings with Russia and China – and that consensus was only reached late last night.
Kant said the key is “working together with Sherpas” and that it was a joint effort by emerging markets – led by India, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia, and later Mexico, Turkey and Saudi Arabia – that was putting pressure on the economy. G7 countries and brought them to the table.
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“(There were) almost 200 hours of non-stop negotiations… the Bali paragraph had failed and we were struggling for nine months. Then in one meeting I took a regular screen and scribbled down 15 basic principles for us to follow. All the Sherpas then joined in and gave their perspectives,” he explained.
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“Based on this, we made a first draft… no one really expected that we would reach a consensus. The first draft provoked a number of reactions… people were pessimistic that we could all reach a consensus on Russia and Ukraine, because multilateral forums around the world were unable to do so.”
“From the first draft, we went to a second… and a third. After that, I think bilateral meetings with each country helped,” Kant told NDTV. “The most important thing was to draw the red lines of each country.”
It was then that India began working with three other Sherpas: those from Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa. “So it was a joint proposal from four emerging markets… and then we brought in Mexico, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. They all joined forces and there was pressure from the emerging markets.”
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“Our concern was that development issues are much more important than war issues… Ultimately, we negotiated with the G7 countries, then with Russia and China. Last night we submitted the final draft.”
However, there was still the potential for disaster: a last-minute disagreement that would mean the 2023 G20 summit in New Delhi would be the first G20 meeting without a fully unanimous statement.
And it was here, Kant revealed, that he borrowed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name.
“We kept going until the last minute… at that (last) Sherpa meeting I said, ‘This is the final draft and you can accept it or the deal will expire.’ I also told them, ‘If anyone has any objection, your leader can talk to my leader.’ So I pulled the Prime Minister’s weight at that time,” he told NDTV.
He said he told other Sherpas that Prime Minister Modi told him, “This is the perfect design” – one that addresses the concerns of every country. “I told them it is critical… we will not have a split paragraph or footnote. We will only have consensus. That’s how it was and today all the countries aligned,” Kant said.
