Why India is counting on G20 to burnish its stature

In July 1963, with the Cold War at its peak, United Stanedy felt it was far better that the leaders of the US and Soviet Union met at a summit a term Winston Churchill coined in 1950-than on the brink of a nuclear war.

- ARCHIS MOHAN

In the post-Cold War era, summitry of top world leaders, especially of the multilateral kind, is far more frequent and takes place in contexts that may seem less urgent but are politically equally nuanced.

Hosting global conferences or international sporting events, such as the Olympics, could be an effort by an emerging economy to announce it's coming of age and win international prestige. It could also help a country's incumbent leadership to renew its domestic political legitimacy.

"We notice that whenever a country hosts an Olympics or a major summit, its profile changes significantly on the world stage," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday when he inaugurated Bharat Mandapam, the new 7,000seater conference hall-cum-exhibition centre in the heart of New Delhi and the venue for the G20 summit next month.

Modi juxtaposed the hosting of G20, India's economic growth and his government's third term. He said it is "Modi's guarantee that in his third term, "India will be among the top three economies in the world". He said the world will witness "the rising strides of India and its growing stature" when the "grand" Bharat Mandapam hosts the G20 summit.