G 20 : A Great Opportunity Wasted By Politics Dominating Over Global Economic Recovery : बादल भी बहुत गरजे बिजली भी चमकी पर बारिश नहीं हुई
राजीव उपाध्याय
The much awaited G 20 Summit is fortunately over . India is basking in the glory of having achieved a consensus in the traditional declaration issued which eluded in Bali summit. Also the declaration did not annoy India’s traditional friends like Russia .
But does it not speak of a total failure of global community that a mere issuing of a totally bland and directionless joint statement is regarded as success ? Even that was largely a concession given by G7 countries who are also responsible for plunging world into an un precedented economic crisis exemplified by global inflation and collapse small economies Sri Lankan economy by debt and almost zero or negative economic growth rate in Germany , UK etc.
G 20 summit started as a financial forum after 2008 crisis and in first meeting in 2009 very far reaching decisions to solve the global financial crisis were taken . But since Ukraine war ,west hijacked it to serve its political agenda of visibly isolating Russia as in Bali conference . In spite the of issue of highly politicised Bali declaration, none of the Russia’s friends deserted Russia instead in the BRICS meeting in South Africa many developing countries worried by frequently imposed unilateral sanctions , queued up to join BRICS as an alternative . Ultimately it was expanded to include Iran , Saudi Arabia and many other countries .
Possibly worried by the failure of Bali declaration , G7 countries allowed India to have its brief moment of glory by issuing a milder summit declaration which satisfied every one .
But unlike the highly successful Paris Climate Accord , there were no goal posts nor a road map to pull the world out of severe inflation and recession caused by the meaning less Ukraine war . Having seen the fate of Iraq , Libya , Syria and expansion of Nato eastward , no one is buying the Western song on Ukraine’s sovereignty etc inspite of its being partially right .
Instead, some agreement on rescheduling of Debts of poor nations , granting easy concessions to Russia on Black sea movement of food grains would have increased the stature of G7 countries apart from providing some much needed succour to LDC countries . Similarly Iran Venezuela could be permitted sell say fifty million tonnes of crude oil and equivalent gas as a one time measure to reduce the oil prices. UK , Germany etc are paying a very high price for Ukraine war and need these concessions too for their economic recovery. But West is fighting a small historical enemy like Russia while the real elephant , China , is the biggest gainer from Ukraine war. Europe has forgotten that it was the Russian army that saved it in the second world war . Since then Russia has never harmed Europe !
Even the much touted India – Middle East – Europe corridor proposal lacks details of funding and time frame . The other such north south corridor from Russia to India via Iran is languishing for twenty years due to lack of funding . In contrast China delivers on all its promises as they come with assured funding.
So G 20 summit can be summed up in one sentence
‘ बादल तो बहुत गरजे , बिजली भी चमकी पर बारिश नहीं हुई !’
