THE SHERPA'S TREK

The former Indian Administrative Service officer has been at the helm of important assignments of the government for long. However, during India's G20 presidency, his role as India's sherpa in building consensus among disagreeing nations amid geopolitical volatility has been a gamechanger

- Abdul Haleem Sherif

AMITABH KANT

The role of the president of the Group of Twenty (G20) is significant in that it is responsible for “bringing together the G20 agenda in consultation with other members and in response to developments in the global economy”, according to the outline given on the group’s website. However, when India took over the presidency of G20 last December, the biggest apprehension was about building consensus on key global issues, especially in a tense geopolitical climate due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict. This tension threatened to derail the issuing of a joint statement at the G20 summit—a usual practice at these gatherings—scheduled in New Delhi in 2023. The pressure on India and its G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant was immense.

In multilateral forums like G20, each member nation is represented by its sherpa, often a career bureaucrat. Even before India took over the G20 presidency, Kant had already showcased his negotiation skills at the 2022 G20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. India’s sherpa played a key role in helping build a consensus for the Bali Leaders’ Declaration which was agreed upon by all G20 nations. “It would have been very difficult if I had not helped then,” he says. “If G20 had split in Bali, then that would have been the end of G20. There were differences of opinion, but I steered that declaration and got it through. That is how Bali got a declaration finally,” he adds.