Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Sunday heaped praise on the Narendra Modi government for the G20 Summit success and said that the Delhi declaration that was adopted on the very first day of the mega event “is undoubtedly a diplomatic triumph for India”.
Tharoor said that the government made the event into a “people’s Summit” while also converting the massive programme into an “asset” for the ruling party politically.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday had said that a consensus had been built on the New Delhi G20 Leaders' Summit Declaration before announcing its adoption. On the occasion, PM Modi congratulated his ministers and sherpas for successfully bringing the members to a common ground.
Tharoor, a prominent Opposition leader, lauded the government calling the Declaration an “extremely effective achievement”.
“The Delhi Declaration is undoubtedly a diplomatic triumph for India. It's a good achievement because right until the G20 summit was being convened, the widespread expectation was there would be no agreement and, that, therefore, a joint communique might not be possible, and, that we might have to end up with a chairman's summary,” Tharoor said.
“The main reason (for lack of a consensus on the statement) was the big gulf between those who wanted a condemnation of the Russian war in Ukraine and those, like Russia and China, who wanted no mention whatsoever of that subject. India was able to find a formula to bridge that gap and that is a significant diplomatic achievement because when there is a Summit without a joint communique, it is always seen as a setback for the chairman,” the Congress leader explained.
Tharoor congratulates Jaishankar
He congratulated External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, India’s sherpa for G20 Amitabh Kant stating what they have done is “very good for India”.
Acknowledging that “it is not easy to pull off a diplomatic negotiation like this”, Tharoor said that both of them seem to have put in a lot of hard effort.
“I'm in touch with both Amitabh Kant, the G-20 Sherpa, and with our foreign minister, and I would congratulate them because what they have done is certainly very, very good for India. It is not easy to pull off a diplomatic negotiation like this. They both seem to have put in a lot of hard effort, and I think one should give credit where credit is due... But as far as the achievement of actually squaring the circle, which is an impossible task almost on Ukraine is concerned, it's really very impressive... So it really was an extremely effective achievement to pull this off,” he said.
Tharoor, who is also a former international civil servant, said that the government’s conduct of the G20 was “remarkable” that it made it a nationwide event, adding that no other country has done it in the past.
“One of the things that was remarkable about the government's conduct of the presidency was that they did something that no previous G-20 presidency has done. They actually made it a huge nationwide event. 200 meetings in 58 cities, a huge amount of action, and the conversion of the G-20 into a sort of people's G-20 with public events... civil society and think tank meetings all of these things were unprecedented. No other country has done anything like that,” he said.
“And that is, in some ways, both a credit to India for taking the message of the G-20 to the entire people. But it's also an attempt by the ruling party to instrumentalize the G-20 as something that would turn out to be an asset for them politically... India has hosted many summits. Never has the ruling party celebrated its leadership in such a way,” the Congress leader added.
On the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor that was announced at the G20 Summit, Tharoor said, "...The India Middle East EU initiative is completely new, not something that was anticipated earlier, and that has tremendous potential for the future, provided it is implemented properly... So I would say on this one, it's a welcome initiative,... but we will have to see how well this is implemented in our country and in the other countries that are part of this initiative."
Before declaring that the summit closed, PM Modi handed over the ceremonial gavel of the Group of 20 presidency to Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
India assumed the G20 presidency on December 1 last year and about 200 meetings related to G20 were organised in 60 cities across the country.
(With ANI inputs)
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