Soluble and relevant: The focus of India's G20 agenda

India is due to take over the presidency of the Group of 20 (G20) nations on December 1 this year, following the Bali Summit of heads of government. The presidency comes with the requirement to host multiple meetings of working groups and task forces, and also with a certain amount of agenda-setting power. Much attention will be paid, therefore, to how the Indian government determines the issues for discussion. India will be taking over the G20 at a particularly complex geopolitical moment. To the longer-term and broad divergence between the West and China over the future of the international order has been added the immediate issue of the invasion of Ukraine by a G20 member, Russia. The agenda will have to be crafted in such a manner that India’s development priorities will be addressed while also managing tensions enveloping the US, Europe, Russia, and China. India has sought, in the context of the invasion of Ukraine, to demonstrate that its foreign policy is completely autonomous and independent, and the government hopes this will assist in designing a successful G20 presidency.

Some indications of India’s priorities as president have already been put out by senior government officials. Most of these are sensible requirements from the point of view of India’s development trajectory and its international requirements. Sustainable finance — not just climate finance, but also financing the sustainable development goals, or SDGs — will be a major priority. This is vitally important not just for India but for emerging economies more generally. The question is not one of public finance necessarily, but of enabling private capital to flow into growth-enhancing projects in the developing world — the projects that have a sustainability or climate component. This will require major changes to the international financial architecture, and the G20 is the right forum to discuss them. One specific reform that must not be long delayed is altering the mandates of the multilateral development banks, or MDBs, such as the World Bank.

The last two presidencies of the G20, respectively, commissioned and received an expert report on the capital adequacy practices of MDBs; the report has recommended changes to the MDBs’ governing principles and those will vastly enhance their ability to lend to emerging economies. Turning this report into action must be a key priority for India. India will also take on questions related to the weaponisation of the international trading and financial system — a clear signal that unilateral sanctions cannot be allowed to weigh down the process of globalisation. And earlier this year, the prime minister also indicated that regulating cryptocurrencies, or — to use the Union finance ministry’s preferred term, virtual digital assets — must also be discussed and ideally decided at G20 level. Finally, sovereign-debt issues and food-price disruptions are global matters that India cannot afford to ignore as president of the G20.

The government may be tempted to showcase its own achievements. But it must resist this temptation. The purpose of India’s presidency must be to focus on that subset of international issues that are both soluble and relevant to the country’s development trajectory. Recent statements indicate that the agenda choices are indeed on the right track. The final agenda release will be carefully watched to ensure it fits these parameters.