If anything, the outcome of the G20 foreign ministerial meeting was a good barometer of the true nature of India's potential as a global power. On its own turf, it still was not able to garner support from all the G20 members to agree on the joint ministerial statement last week. The host was very disappointed, given its recent success at the Bali summit last November. The harsh reality serves as a reminder of the prevailing geopolitical rivalry, which is getting worse by the day. Just a few months ago, India was hailed as a hero for playing a very important role in assisting the G20 host, Indonesia, to broker the G20 leaders' statement -- once described as an impossible task. Since then, New Delhi has been very proud of its political clout.
Back to India, despite great efforts from all members to accommodate the host, the polarisation between major G20 members -- the US and its allies on one side and Russia and China on the other -- over the Russia-Ukraine war, was still far too great to come up with any compromise text. In the coming days, these gaps will further widen as the US and Nato are pumping more ammunition in for the Ukrainian army to prepare for the upcoming spring offensive by Russia. The intensified fighting will be clearly manifested at negotiating tables throughout this year's G20 preparatory meetings until its summit on Sept 9-10, right after the 42nd Asean-related summit in Jakarta from Sept 5-7. The international community will be watching whether Jakarta can repeat its success at the Asean-related summits. At this juncture, nobody can predict what the outcome will be. For one thing, however, given the hard-line positions held by the major parties in the conflict, it is doubtful that the G20 leader's statement could be issued.
From the very first day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was realistic. In his opening remark, he stated that the current conflict has already caused "deep global divisions", but he was pragmatic enough to say that the ministers should work on their common ground. "We should not allow issues that we cannot resolve together to come in the way of those we can," he said.
