Shashi Tharoor lauds India’s G20 sherpa after ‘200 hours of non-stop negotiations’ claim

It wasn’t an easy task to achieve consensus on the G20 declaration. India’s G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant told NDTV that nearly 200 hours of “non-stop negotiations” were required to ensure a joint communique from G20 leaders divided over the grouping’s stance on Russia’s war on Ukraine.

A series of hardball negotiations by India with China, Russia and other key Western players and a strong backing by Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia to the efforts helped New Delhi achieve consensus. Reports claimed said India circulated the final draft to the G20 members on Friday night saying if they did not agree to it, then there would be no declaration.

Confirming the landmark development, Kant said the New Delhi Declaration was the result of multiple rounds of talks and that consensus was only reached late Friday night.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor lauded Kant for hardball negotiations.

“Well done ⁦@amitabhk87! Looks lile the IFS lost an ace diplomat when you opted for the IAS! ‘Negotiated with Russia, China, only last night got final draft,’ says India’s G20 Sherpa on ‘Delhi Declaration’ consensus,” Tharoor wrote on X (formally Twitter).

Tharoor also described it as a “proud moment for India at G20!”.

Sources told news PTI that India managed well in convincing China to agree to the text relating to the Ukraine conflict after the European Union concurred with the text.

On the first day of the summit on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that the G20 leaders’ declaration was adopted with consensus, throwing a major surprise as both the Russia-China combine and the West had indicated that they would not budge from their respective positions on the Ukraine conflict.

The declaration was adopted hours after the Indian side circulated among the G20 states a new text to refer to the Ukraine crisis in the draft leaders’ declaration in an effort to break the impasse.

A draft of the declaration prepared on Friday, which most G20 states agreed on, left the paragraph on the “geopolitical situation” or the Ukraine crisis blank.

The negotiators from G20 states hammered out an agreement on 75 other paragraphs in the draft, including issues such as financing for climate transition, reform of multilateral development banks, and regulation of cryptocurrency.

French diplomatic sources told PTI that India has displayed a “kind of power and an ability to bring countries together”, adding not many countries are in a position to negotiate as New Delhi has done to take on board comments from everyone, and work out a compromise proposal on the Ukraine conflict.

It was a tough negotiation and the consensus on the declaration was a great achievement by India, European sources said on the condition of anonymity.

Asked about the absence of the term “Russian aggression” on Ukraine in the declaration which figured in the Bali G20 declaration, the sources said the Western countries were satisfied with the overall outcomes.