G-20 Summit: With Putin and Xi abstaining, the Modi-Biden duo to steal the show next week
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Would the Group of 20 (G-20) be eventually overshadowed by the G-7, and become ‘irrelevant’ just like the erstwhile Non-Alignment Movement (NAM), the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC)?
Will the Global South, formerly the “Third World”, be absorbed by the North?
These are the questions that may crop up after next week’s G-20 Summit, in New Delhi on September 9 and 10, as India passes the baton of this bloc to Brazil for the 19th Summit, to be held in its capital Rio De Janeiro next year.
For, in the absence of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, the upcoming G-20 Summit would, in all likelihood, be dominated by the host India and the United States, the two largest democracies. US President Joe Biden will remain in the Indian capital from September 8 to 11 and hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi—to the chagrin of India’s enemies, both internal and external.
With the US remaining the top economy, and China struggling to retain its Number Two position under severe odds, India, ready to emerge as the third largest, is likely to dislodge even the Dragon in the next decade or so.
Would India, then, continue to lead the Global South?
Even the BRICS bloc—comprising the five emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—has diluted its importance after the induction of six new members last month. Nearly 40 other countries, including a broke Pakistan, lined up for its membership, directly or indirectly.
The biggest loser in geopolitics and geoeconomics in the last decade is the former superpower Russia, which is no longer seen even as a regional power. Except for its nuclear heft, Russia is increasingly dependent on its former foe, China, and its lapdog North Korea, to supply weapons to continue its war in Ukraine.
Within the last three years, both revanchist and expansionist Russia and China have lost their global voice and standing.
Fearing arrest in the Ukraine human rights case, Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the BRICS Summit in Johannesburg. Why, he is also not coming to New Delhi for the G-20 Summit next week, although India is not a signatory to the International Criminal Court (ICC) which issued a warrant against the Russian leader in March. Apparently, Putin wouldn’t like to face Biden!
After its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and its inability to prove its winnability even against a relatively weaker neighbor, Russia has cut a sorry figure worldwide. Isolated, Moscow, therefore, may soon lose its global standing on different platforms, unless a regime change happens in the Kremlin.
After skipping South Africa, however, President Putin is visiting China whose President Xi Jinping also cut a sorry figure in Johannesburg—even his personal security guards were not allowed inside the main hall by the South African police, as he waited for them!
Even though China continues to boast of being the world’s second-largest economy, Xi skipped even the key business-related meeting of the BRICS bloc, fearing uncomfortable questions about the plummeting Chinese economy.
Now, Xi Jinping is not visiting New Delhi next week fearing discomfiture over the dragging Sino-India border dispute with New Delhi refusing to budge an inch. Like Russia, China has also painted itself into a corner worldwide.
With Russia and China almost exiting world bodies like G-7, BRICS, and G-20, they have left the field open for India.
This is what may start unfolding next week.
