G20: India’s Modi relishes the highlight amid doubts over what summit achieves

As a PR train, the G20 summit in New Delhi was a masterclass by Narendra Modi.

At occasions, the Indian prime minister seemed like he’d been anointed, reasonably than merely the most recent rotating host.

He is the chief du jour, the much-needed strategic counterweight in a divided world.

Members seem so drawn to his financial, navy and bridge-building potential, they’re prepared to place apart considerations about his nationalist politics at house.

But some argue the G20 is now nothing greater than a speaking store.

And this 12 months’s summit, they are saying, has supplied little concrete progress on tackling local weather change or wealth inequality.

They additionally declare there may be little element concerning the new financial hall between India, the Middle East and Europe.

And but, it seems like most members really feel like they acquired one thing out of this summit.

Most critically, they prevented failure.

But you want solely to take a look at the passing of the baton to see how fragile this group is.

President Lula of Brazil has already promised Russian chief Vladimir Putin wouldn’t be arrested in Brazil if he attends the Group of 20 assembly in Rio de Janeiro subsequent 12 months.

Interviewed on the sidelines, Mr Lula additionally mentioned he’d be attending a BRICs bloc of creating nations assembly in Russia earlier than the subsequent gathering.

This is a brand new period in world politics.

The energy dynamics have modified, and western dominance is being closely examined.

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The Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov welcomed the wording on Ukraine, principally, in fact, as a result of it did not condemn or hardly point out Russia.

He declared: “Thanks to the consolidated position of the global south defending its legitimate interests, it was possible to prevent the success of the West’s attempt to again ‘Ukrainise’ the entire agenda.”

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In a information convention because the summit ended, French President Emmanuel Macron tried to hit again, saying the G20 “supports territorial integrity in UN charters”, calling that “the opposite of what Russia is doing”.

Canada’s Justin Trudeau additionally weighed in, saying that if it had been as much as simply him, the language on the Ukraine struggle within the joint declaration would have been stronger.

But the G20 has modified irrevocably and its members additionally know, over the subsequent couple of years, they might effectively need to struggle for its survival.