Harsh Shringla Exclusive Interview: The G20 Summit that is going to be held under India’s Presidency for the first time on September 9-10 in New Delhi will be “transformational” in trying to make the world “less vulnerable” to shocks like a Covid pandemic and conflicts, Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Chief Coordinator of G20, told ABP LIVE. Speaking exclusively to ABP LIVE even as world leaders were beginning to arrive in New Delhi to attend what promises to be an “impeccable and uniquely Indian summit”, Shringla said, “G20 (Summit) in our country will be transformational. This is the first time we’ve been the President of the G20 but it’s a difficult period.”
He added: “And India has taken on leadership of the largest economies of the world at a time when we are seeing unprecedented global challenges. We have, in many senses, contributed to providing solutions through the G20 to those challenges given our own experiences and our own achievements."
Shringla, who was India’s foreign secretary from 2020 to 2022, also said India will be presenting to the world the “human-centric development model” followed in the country and implement that into economic development, technology and infrastructure poression among others.
"We are telling the world, through the G20, that let us work for a human-centric globalisation and let us work for a global common good. India, through its own experiences, is happy to share this globally with our G20 partners,” he highlighted.
The G20 was founded in 1999 after the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98 as an informal forum for the finance ministers and central bank governors of the most important industrialised and developing economies to discuss international economic and financial stability. It was upgraded to the level of heads of state/government in the wake of the global economic and financial crisis of 2007, and in 2009, when it became apparent that the necessary crisis coordination would only be possible at the highest political level. The G20 Summit is held annually under the leadership of a rotating presidency.
G20 Summit In New Delhi: FULL COVERAGE
‘India Is Bridge Between North & South and East & West’
According to Shringla, who was also India’s envoy to the US and Bangladesh, said India is “uniquely positioned” in a multipolar world and hence it was able to bring together the G20 member countries to hold a successful Leaders’ Summit at a time when the world is facing numerous geopolitical and economic challenges.
The G20 Presidency is responsible for bringing together the G20 agenda in consultation with other members and in response to developments in the global economy. To ensure continuity, the presidency is supported by a ‘troika’ made up of the current, immediate past and next host countries.
During India’s Presidency, the members of the G20 troika are Indonesia, India and Brazil. The G20 Summit in 2024 will be held in Brazil.
"We are uniquely positioned. We are regular invitees to the G7, we are members of the Quad, we are members of BRICS, we are members of SCO. We straddle that ideological space. We are the bridge between the North and South and East and West,” he stressed.
"So from that point of view we are uniquely placed in today’s world of polarisation. This polarisation actually cut across the G20 to bring countries together in a formulation that we should unite in the concept of ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’,” he said.
During the Summit, Shringla said, the G20 leaders will focus on reducing conflicts, increase cooperation and the collaborations in stimulating growth, alleviate indebtedness, combating climate change, reforming multilateral institutions and empowering women. "How do you stimulate an accelerated, inclusive, sustainable growth… How can we work with the international community to reform multilateral development banks to strengthen their mandate, to provide them with resources that can contribute towards alleviating the indebtedness that you see in many developing countries, the need for climate finances….How do you provide an international governance structure for new systems and technologies like cryptocurrencies, how do you foster responsible AI, how do you work on people oriented concepts that mitigate climate change…"
For the first time in the history of the G20, China will not be sending its leaders to attend the Summit. While this is seen to be a reflection of the ongoing India-China tensions at the border areas where the armed forces are engaged in a standoff, the G20 Chief Coordinator believes absence of Chinese President Xi Jinping from the summit will not have an impact on the outcome of the meeting.
"There are always some leaders, for their own reason, who cannot make it. I think we will have an excellent representation of world leaders for our G20 Summit. We will have very good deliberations and discussions. We will have the desired outcomes. Every country has an interest in ensuring the success of the G20 process. There is no doubt that the New Delhi G20 Summit will be an exemplary, an impeccable and uniquely Indian summit. It is a Heads of State and Heads of Government meeting and I think we will have participation at the level that we desire,” Shringla said.
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Global Governance On Cryptocurrency & Multinational Taxation
This year, the G20 Summit is expected to bring in some significant decisions in overhauling and reforming multinational taxation and implementing global governance in regulating cryptocurrency, according to Shringla.
During the G20 Finance Ministers’ meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the member countries had discussed the issue of reforming taxation in an effort to the developing or low-income countries as well as the least-developed that continue to suffer under debt burden thereby not achieving a positive economic growth.
"The multinational taxation structure is something that is being discussed and I think some progress will be made and under our Presidency we are looking at progress in that area as well," said Shringla.
On cryptocurrency regulation, India has tabled a proposal to bring in laws that will regulate cryptocurrencies and govern crypto assets. During the Leaders’ Summit, the proposal may turn into a global crypto regulatory framework based on the proposal submitted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Financial Stability Board (FSB) to the G20 countries.
"That is (proposal on cryptocurrency) on the track and it has been mentioned in the finance track. There was already a report submitted by the Financial Stability Board and we are now looking at a second report, which is a combined report by the IMF and the FSB and it will take into account not just financial stability but also macroeconomic stability, so (it will be) a comprehensive report, a sort of pathway towards global governance in cryptocurrency is already under discussion,” said Shringla.
Apart from this, he said, the issue of giving shape to resilient and sustainable supply chains will also gain prominence during the Leaders’ Summit. "The issue of resilient and sustainable supply chains has been part of that conversation. We have been working even outside of G20 in that endeavour. No doubt this is an important factor even in the G20. This will undoubtedly be discussed," the former foreign secretary said.
"We have the basis to look at how the world can be less vulnerable to shocks in the form of Covid or Conflicts that impact on countries, especially developing countries and concerns of the Global South is foremost in our mind … We have brought it an unprecedented number of initiatives and a lot of them will see fruition.”
Shringla added: “We will be handing over the banner to Brazil in a manner that would provide a continuity and we are confident that as we took the banner from Indonesia, we would also handover to Brazil and their presidency will be a very successful one."
The G20 comprises 19 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Türkiye, United Kingdom, and United States) and the European Union. The G20 members represent around 85 per cent of the global GDP, over 75 per cent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.