India Confident of G20 Declaration Despite Conflicts

New Delhi, Nov 13 (PTI) Days ahead of the G20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, India on Wednesday exuded confidence that the Brazilian presidency of the grouping will manage to come out with a "consolidated" leaders' declaration notwithstanding the complex issue of the conflicts in Ukraine and West Asia.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Joe Biden will be among the leaders attending the Summit on November 18 and 19.

Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri, at a media briefing, said the upcoming G20 Summit will be "very special" as it will be the first time the African Union will take its place in the grouping as a full member.

Induction of the 55-nation African Union as a permanent member of the G20 and managing to produce a leaders' declaration overcoming deep divisions over the Ukraine conflict were seen as major milestones of India's presidency of the G20 last year.

The foreign secretary said the priorities of the Brazilian presidency of the G20 aligned very well with that of India's priorities.

"For India, this Summit will be particularly important as we look to the continuity of our priorities from the New Delhi summit, where a number of issues of interest, especially to emerging markets and developing economies, were also discussed," Misri said.

The theme of Brazil's G20 presidency is building a just world and a sustainable planet.

The three key priorities of the Brazilian presidency are social inclusion and the fight against hunger and poverty, energy transitions and the promotion of sustainable development and reform of global governance institutions.

Asked whether the war in Ukraine and conflict in West Asia are coming in the way of building consensus on the leaders' declaration, Misri said negotiations are underway on it.

"You know the international geopolitical situation has become even more complicated since the last G20 Summit," he said.

The foreign secretary even recalled how India experienced certain complexities in terms of finding ministerial outcome documents in view of the conflict in Ukraine.

"But we were then eventually able to have a consensus document in the form of the New Delhi declaration," he said. Misri said the G20 Sherpas have managed to work out a procedure whereby "geopolitical language" has been removed from the ministerial outcome documents.

The move resulted in "fairly straightforward" ministerial outcome documents as issues related to geopolitical developments are being dealt with by way of a chair's summary, he said.

"However, the leaders' declaration at the Summit is going to be a consolidated consensus document. There is no separate chair's summary," Misri said.

"I imagine that these complex issues of the conflicts, Ukraine, West Asia, etc, are figuring in the discussions. The declaration is being negotiated as we speak, but I am sure that we will be able to get a good declaration despite the complexities posed by these conflicts," he added.

To another question, Misri said the New Delhi declaration did set a template for how many of the difficult issues could be approached.

PM Modi will travel to Brazil as part of a three-nation tour. The prime minister's first destination will be Nigeria. From there, he will travel to Brazil. After concluding his trip to Brazil, Modi will visit Guyana.