As the final countdown begins for the G20 Summit being hosted by India in New Delhi on September 9 and 10, all eyes are on whether a unanimous declaration will be arrived at by the end of the summit, amid sharp differences between the West and Russia-China combine. A unanimous declaration is seen as a minimum requirement for considering the summit a success.
The G20 Sherpas' are currently holding negotiations to finalise the draft of the G20 leaders' declaration. "The text as it is presented by the Indians now is not enough for the G7 and EU... because it is not going far enough,” an official told PTI. The G20 operates under the principle of consensus and any divergent view by any one member country can create hurdles.
What is a Delhi Declaration?
A consolidated document with the consensus of all G20 leaders is expected to be released at the end of the summit. The document that would be released at the end of the summit would be known as 'Delhi Declaration' as the summit is being held in Delhi.
The previous declaration was made when Bali was hosting the summit in November 2022. The G20 Bali Declaration was a joint statement issued at the conclusion of the summit that summarised the member countries' promises to the globe and strategies to overcome the issues at hand.
Will a declaration be issued at the end of this week's summit?
Almost all key meetings held under India's G20 presidency including those of finance and foreign ministers, could not come out with consensus documents in view of opposition from Russia and China to any text referring to the Ukraine conflict.
The Ukraine crisis is a priority for the European Union and Russia and China are increasingly "isolated" on the issue, a senior EU official said on Wednesday as India tries to build consensus on the text to describe the crisis in the G20 leaders' declaration. The EU can't accept any effort by Russia and China to move away from text that was used in G20 Summit in Bali to refer to the conflict, the official said.
Both Russia and China had agreed to the two paragraphs on the Ukraine conflict in last year's Bali declaration, but they backtracked from it this year creating difficulties for India.
At an online briefing, the EU official side-stepped questions on whether differences on the Ukraine crisis could hold up a consensus leaders' declaration. If there is no leaders’ declaration, this will be the first instance that G20 members fail to agree on a common document at the highest level, according to a report by Scroll.
Meanwhile, the United States on Wednesday hoped that all countries would sign the joint declaration. John Kirby, National Security Council (NSC) coordinator for strategic communications, also pointed out that the G20 summit may also end without a joint declaration as Russia and the West continue to spar over the Ukraine war among other issues.
"Often times the sticking point tends to be the war in Ukraine because countries like Russia and China are less likely to sign on to language that the rest of the international community is more uncomfortable signing on to, so we'll see where it goes. But we'd like to see that, absolutely," Kirby said.
