NEW DELHI SUMMIT DECLARATION: G20 COMING OF AGE

The pervasive mood in much of the developing world is not to let geopolitical confrontation stymie progress on the issues of major consequence for them

- PS RAGHAVAN

THE issue of the G20 New Delhi Leaders' Declaration, on day one of the two-day Summit, is no less than a black swan event. With the geopolitical polarisation of the West and Russia-China, it appeared inconceivable that a meeting including them could produce a consensus, particularly on Ukraine.

Several countries had signalled that they expected an explicit condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Russia, supported by China, insisted it would not accept even the formulation that had found reluctant consensus at the G20 in Bali a year ago, since both the military situation and the political environment had changed since then.

In the event, the final text was a substantial departure from the Bali version, but in unexpected ways. The condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which was included in the Bali declaration as a quote from a UN General Assembly resolution, was dropped; the resolution was mentioned only by its number.

The New Delhi declaration did contain obiter dicta on international law: states must act in accordance with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, refrain from the threat or use of force to seek territorial acquisition, and respect the political independence of states. But as long as they are not specifically named, countries find it possible to live with such general assertions in multilateral documents, pretending that they do not apply to them.