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In international relations, agendas are driven through the charm of narratives. However, there are moments when the lure of such charms chips away at the convening power of agendas. Today is one such moment.
Image Graphics by Team Geostrata
Whether these narratives bring together or draw apart the international community depends not so much on the context of the time as on the standing of those who supply them.
With India assuming the Chair of the Think 20 (T20) as part of its G20 Presidency, an opportunity has arisen to compel political reflection on the future of global governance. India has the diplomatic substance and balancing capacity to forge consensus on agendas across the board. She today possesses the standing and will to make the international distribution of power permeable to and simultaneously more representative of the global political geography of aspirations.
In this backdrop, the T20 affords India an opportunity to refresh the international conversation by endowing it with a philosophy of good faith, constructive cooperation, and mutual understanding of national sentiments. Such a philosophy is readily found in the Vedanta, the spiritual cannon directing Indian strategic thinking, having found expressions in Indian policies such as Vaccine Maitri, strategic restraint and multi-alignment.
With the theme of India’s G20 2023 Presidency being “One Earth, One Family, One Future” drawn directly from Vedantist pronouncement ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,’ it is clear that India wills to take this chance. The T20, one of the engagement groups under the G20, is a network of reputed think tanks from across the G20 countries functioning as the research and policy advisory node for the G20.
Its job is to anchor proposal items and discussions floated at the G20 table in analytical depth and scope them for feasibility. Furthermore, as the ‘ideas bank of G20,’ it is also entrusted with advancing solutions to questions featuring in the international affairs and policy discourse.
The Indian presidency comes at a most opportune moment for the T20. At the Think 20 inception conference held last month in New Delhi, the unveiling of task forces to turn in policy research and advice on issues such as inclusive and affordable digital public infrastructure, clean energy and green transitions, new pathways to the 2030 agenda, and transforming global institutions and frameworks conveys India’s resolve to get real work done—on issues most urgent to members’ cumulative wellbeing and security—through the auspices of India’s G20 presidency.
As underlined in the inception conference, the various T20 task forces shall double down as intellectual inputs shaping how the G20 evolves over time to create solutions to emerging global policy contingencies. The group under Indian stewardship can position itself as a repository of not only solutions but also settlements to the embroiling questions that have fractured international discourse.
Such contentions have reduced not only the maneuvering possibilities for nations outside the extant networks of power but also the narrative space to motivate any substantial cooperation on pricking issues spanning development financing to climate change and beyond.
Brand India has demonstrated its convening power in the international community through Prime Minister Modi’s piloting of initiatives that speak to core concerns bearing on the ontological security of all countries.
For instance, the International Solar Alliance, a member-driven, collaborative platform joined by 106 nations for rapid development and dissemination of solar energy technologies as scalable alternatives to fossil fuels is ensuring preparedness for clean energy transitions across the developing world.
The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure, a multi-stakeholder global partnership of countries, institutions and banks, is working towards expeditious financing of resilient infrastructure and diffusion of sustainable development technologies in the face of climate change and linked calamities.
Furthermore, as an added contribution to the G20, we have launched a new working group on Disaster Risk Reduction to facilitate interdisciplinary research and joint cooperation and research on best practices concerning disaster risk reduction.
India’s steering of the Delhi Declaration on countering the proliferation of emerging technologies for terrorist purposes unanimously adopted by the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee in October 2022, and its batting for one common definition of ‘terrorism’ and ‘terror financing’ at the No Money for Terror Conference attended by 70 countries in New Delhi in November 2022 are running instances of international receptivity to India’s ideas towards addressing global problems.
Given India’s proven record of matching word with action, its keenness to go its own reasoned way on contentious issues, and its sincere efforts at preventing detraction from cooperation on what really matters, the T20 has been handed a bountiful scope for success.
It must now create a thought ecosystem conducive to the propelment of a grand narrative of issue-based cooperation, which could allay as well as ascend contentions thwarting constructive international cooperation. Tapping into India’s earned goodwill could in effect bring out the charm of such a grand narrative, on the back of which the T20 could drive ideas primed for implementation at policy levels across the G20 countries.
BY ASISH SINGH
TEAM GEOSTRATA
info@thegeostrata.com