Every crisis is an opportunity, India's G20 Sherpa says hosting first meeting with counterparts

Every crisis is an opportunity, New Delhi’s G20 Sherpa, Amitabh Kant, said as he hosted his counterparts from the other member nations of the bloc as well as representatives of the multilateral organizations at Udaipur in Rajasthan on Sunday.

The meeting of the G20 Sherpas from Sunday to Wednesday in Udaipur is the first after India took over the presidency of the premier forum for international economic and financial cooperation last Thursday. “Every crisis is an opportunity and leadership is about finding path-breaking solutions in the midst of crisis,” Kant said, speaking at a panel discussion on “Transforming Lives: Accelerating Implementation of Sustainable Development” held on the sideline of the meeting of the G20 Sherpas.

He told journalists that the G20 presidency had given an opportunity to India to be the voice of the “Global South” and place the issues of the developing nations on the agenda of the bloc.

"Earlier, we used to get agenda items from the developed world. Now, we get to set the agenda for the G20 meeting,” said Kant. “We will tell the world that we are the mother of democracy.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the G20 presidential gavel from Indonesian President Joko Widodo at Bali in the South East Asian nation on November 16 – the concluding day of the bloc’s 17th summit, which was overshadowed by the tension between the western nations, led by the United States, and Russia over the former Soviet Union nation’s military aggression against Ukraine.

“We are passing through massive geopolitical crisis. We have seen the breakdown of global supply chains, countries suffering from rising debt and the huge crisis of climate action and climate finance,” Kant said in Udaipur on Sunday.

He stressed on inclusive, resilient and sustainable growth, accelerating the pace of creating better livelihood and improving healthcare and quality of life as the world recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The prime minister will host the leaders of the other G20 nations for the 18th summit of the bloc in New Delhi on September 9 and 10 next year.

Kant will over the next few days discuss with his counterparts from the other G20 nations about the priorities New Delhi would like to set for the bloc to ensure resilient economic growth, climate action and leading role of women in development.

New Delhi plans to highlight India’s innovative approaches, tools and experiences in areas such as digital transformation especially ‘data for development’, green transition, women-led development, and economic growth for the Sustainable Development Goals, which, according to it, offer a variety of good practices and lessons that other nations could benefit from. The panel discussion held on the sideline of the meeting of the G20 Sherpas witnessed discussions on the four accelerators that could help overcome many of the obstacles that the 2030 agenda currently faced due to cascading and multiple crises the world faces, as it reached the midpoint of the SDG journey.

It was concluded that the G20 platform was in a unique position to provide leadership and financial resources and work together to bring the world back on track to achieve the SDGs, according to a press release issued at the end of the first day of the meeting.