India determined to deliver action-oriented agenda for next G20 Summit: Amitabh Kant

The Indian side was able to help forge a consensus at the G20 Summit in Indonesia despite several challenges and India’s G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant has said that he is confident a similar consensus will be found before the next summit in New Delhi in September.

India is determined to deliver an action-oriented agenda for the next G20 Summit, including ways to address the issues of debt burden and food and energy security in the Global South and measures to reform multilateral financial institutions to make them more capable of handling challenges such as climate transition, Kant said in an interview after the conclusion of the second G20 sherpas meeting.

Q. Now that you are done with two meetings of the G20 sherpas, how do you think India is placed in terms of delivering an ambitious and action-oriented agenda for the summit?

A. One thing that comes out very clearly from the Kumarakom meeting is that everybody realises we are in a period of great upheaval, of great complexity in various economic, developmental and financial issues. That this will require a very bold action plan, and as our Prime Minister has said, this will require ambition, decisiveness and inclusivity, and everybody wanted India’s G20 presidency to take bold measures. Everybody was in agreement on all the issues that we brought before this G20. In fact, to an extent where many developed countries were saying, we should get even more aggressive on several of these things.

We see this as a unique opportunity, we’ll pursue it boldly and, by the time of the third [Sherpas’] meeting in Hampi [in July], we will come out with a clear draft which will be discussed with all the G20 sherpas.

I have said that between the Hampi meeting and the fourth meeting in Delhi, we should finalise a draft communique and then we will have adequate time to sort out all the issues. So we will have to put the draft communique before them fairly in advance. We are getting inputs because various working group meetings have been held. We would have got their broad drafts and broad ideas. We will have all the content and we’ll try and pursue the Prime Minister’s vision of being very decisive and action-oriented.

Q. India has taken the lead in raising the issues of the Global South at the G20, especially their concerns on food, fuel and fertiliser security and debt burden. How much have you been able to get the other G20 members to focus on these problems of the Global South?

A. On Saturday, we had two presentations on financial structures and on what development strategy to pursue, particularly in the context of sustainable development goals (SDGs). We had a very free and frank discussion and in both meetings, all emerging markets raised the issue of global debt.

I was pleasantly happy that all the developed countries also raised this issue. Therefore, this will be a very key issue in our draft communique and I would say this is an issue which is critical at this moment in time for all emerging and developing markets because the challenge is that debt is available to developed countries at 2% to 3%, to India at about 8%, to Africa at about 15% to 16%, in sub-Saharan countries it goes up to 20% and over.

The risks of Asia are very different from the risks of Africa and the risks of the developed world. You need an agency which can pool these risks together, de-risk projects and ensure lending…We need to ensure a greater flow of funds. Secondly, there is the challenge of global debt which has been discussed extensively in the finance track of the G20. So, I think the Indian presidency will push for bold measures.

Q. Are you more hopeful about progress in reforms of multilateral financial institutions, especially structures that have been there since the end of World War 2? Is there buy-in from the G7 states for changes in these organisations?

A. Two things. One is the clear realisation across the board, both in emerging markets and the developed world, that these institutions are outdated. They are post-Bretton Woods period institutions, which were created in the post-World War 2 era, they are not designed to face the challenges of climate action or the challenges of SDGs, which are two sides of the same coin. Therefore, you need greater reforms in these institutions.

The reforms of these institutions have also been discussed in the finance track, but broadly you need the World Bank to do a much greater level of lending based on its equity base or you need the World Bank to be able to bring vast pools of resources from the private sector to be able to lend to developing and emerging markets to enable climate transition.

Our view across the board was that there should be 10 times more lending from the World Bank. Secondly, even as far as the IMF [International Monetary Fund] is concerned, the challenge of inflation and exchange rates are all their tasks and this has greatly impacted developing markets because we’ve seen huge packages during the Covid-19 period by the developed world, leading to inflation and then tightening of interest rates in a very big way. This has now led to a huge financial crisis in the developed world and is leading to the flow of resources from emerging markets to the developed world.

All the gains made by developing countries in terms of poverty, literacy and education over the past 20 years, we’ve seen Covid-19 and inflation wiping out in the last three to four years. Therefore, if in future productivity increases, efficiency will come from emerging markets and not from the developed world. Therefore, you need a very stable exchange rate, you need to ensure inflation is kept under check and you to ensure that money flows from the developed world to emerging markets and not the other way around. This is the role of the IMF, in which, to my mind, there’s a lot to be said.

Q. You have appeared very confident about getting consensus within G20 as you move forward. You said there was agreement on almost 99% of issues. What is the reason for this optimism that you are going to get China and Russia, which are holding out, back on board?

A. We work with everyone, we work across the board. We speak the same language as the developed world and with every single country. After talking to each one of them, bilaterally and inside the discussion room, I have come to the conclusion that everybody wants consensus and for the G20 to move forward. Everybody feels we should arrive at an agreement on these issues. So, we will continue to work forward, but I’m quite confident that we’ll get it.

Q. And the worries about the Ukraine crisis?

A. Similar challenges had happened in Bali but we were able to overcome them. So we will overcome them.

Q. Several foreign delegates referred to the usefulness of informal sessions that you arranged between the formal discussions for less structured discussions. What is your thought on that?

A. Agreements are arrived at in an informal setting. We continue to work in an informal setting. I am a long-term believer that all agreements are finally arrived at informally, not in a structured manner, but through informal conversations and by winning hearts and minds and by understanding their challenge. We will continue to do that.