If the first term of the Modi government was dominated by the Doval doctrine, it would not be wrong to say that the current term is witnessing the Jaishankar doctrine. With NSA Ajit Doval in the driving seat, India first stabilised the defence foundation of our country. In around four years as the External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar has made a resounding diplomatic superstructure.
Speaking at a G20 event in Hyderabad, Dr. S. Jaishankar recently highlighted the drastic change in India’s thought process. Confident about India’s growth story, Minister Jaishankar announced that it is time for India to aggressively boost its global clout and engage more with the world, and vice versa. In the G20 event, Jaishankar stated that the G-20 Presidency will enable India to be “world-ready” and the world to be “India-ready.”
Whether it is the ongoing G20 or SCO presidency or the rotational monthly presidency of the UNSC in December last year, India has been leading from the front. India has showcased how tough things can be achieved for the global good, not just for a region or a clique of nations.
So, without further ado, let us delve deeper into India’s many selfless acts or initiatives for developing and middle-income countries. Mind you, India has done it solely because of its innate and unique standing in the world as a responsible global power.
India: The sane voice for the voiceless
In a world full of nations that can be easily clubbed either as hunters or prey, India is emerging as a savior for the trapped nations. Talking about hunters, China has been portrayed as the world’s most voracious predator, which it is. However, Western nations too have to share some of the blame. They, too, have used neocolonial tactics to entice hapless nations into their schemes, debts, or coerced fairy-tale ideologies.
As a result, many countries are struggling to maintain their sovereignty as a result of mounting external debt with undisclosed strings attached. For a very long time, India, in its own capacity, raised its voice in support of these poor, voiceless countries. As a voice for the global south and unrepresented nations, India demanded that multinational forums, whether official or private creditors, either allow haircuts in their granted debt or accept to restructure debt as per the capabilities of the indebted nations.
What do you think is happening right now under India’s G-20 presidency? Is India doing enough to ease out these countries’ debt crises? The simple and clear answer is yes.
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India spearheads G-20 consensus on debt management
India, as the President of the G-20, pressed for expeditious resolution of the debt vulnerabilities of low- and middle-income countries like Sri Lanka, Ghana, Zambia, and Ethiopia. Evidently, the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) of the G20 countries had their first meeting under India’s G-20 presidency. The meeting unanimously agreed to address the debt vulnerabilities of low- and middle-income countries.
After the meeting, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced that the FMCBG had arrived at a common position on “debt language.” She stated that vulnerable nations looked to the G20 nations to relieve the debt stress, and four countries, namely Ghana, Sri Lanka, Zambia, and Ethiopia, would benefit from the discussions.
It is a great achievement, as with this, India has managed to have consensus among the G-20 nations on a specific formulation. It will bring both sovereign and private creditors to the table. Now, there will be greater efficiency and coordination among all creditor countries.
Additionally, the meeting also had a consensus on the need for measures to manage crypto assets within a proposed regulatory framework. Highlighting the importance of this well-navigated consensus by the G-20 President, India, the Union Minister added that the G20 is now standing up to meet the challenges of debt stress that many nations are currently facing.
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Minutes of the meeting
Finance Minister Sitharaman also gave specific details about the debt-ridden countries and the formation of committees to solve their debt crisis.
She said, “We welcome the conclusion of debt treatment for Chad and call for a swift conclusion of the work on debt treatment for Zambia and Ethiopia. We also look forward to the rapid formation of the official creditor committee for Ghana to work on the requested debt treatment. Further, we look forward to a swift resolution to Sri Lanka’s debt situation.”
Further, Minister Sitharaman highlighted that earlier, because of the snail pace of resolutions, even if they existed, countries had to wait for years, and yet, their stress piled up even further. The finance minister also stated that India’s presidency received strong support on all its key priorities.
Notably, India particularly got support for the proposal to bring in an expert panel to provide a narrative for an updated vision of the Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs). Now it can make MDBs capable of meeting cross-border challenges.
The expert group proposed by the G20 Indian Presidency will have to submit a report in three months. Now, in the July meeting, the G-20 will take up the discussions and any follow-up that may be required. The expert panel formed will be headed by former Treasury Secretary Larry H. Summers, and former bureaucrat N. K. Singh will be its co-chair.
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What is the severity of the debt crisis?
As per a study by the World Bank in December 2022, the annual debt of the world’s poorest nations was $62 billion. It is a 35% rise over the previous year. This has increased the risk of default. Consequently, a number of nations, including Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, have requested a bailout from the IMF.
This is a result of their financial mismanagement, Chinese debt, and the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine crisis. Pakistan’s external debt accounted for 34.5 percent of the country’s nominal GDP in 2022.
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), nearly 60% of Africa’s low-income countries are in debt distress. In February 2022, 23 African countries were identified as being in or at risk of debt distress.
According to an analysis, by the end of 2021, 16 low-income African countries were deemed to be at high risk of debt distress by both the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. According to the report, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Sao Tome and Principe, Somalia, Sudan, and Zimbabwe are already in debt distress.
Why is the consensus among warring G-20 nations a major win for poor countries, courtesy India?
Do you remember that when the western nations tried to put the blame of Russia-Ukraine crisis squarely on India, what was the prognosis done by Foreign Minister Dr Jaishankar? Yes, it was the famous advice – “Somewhere Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe’s problems are the world’s problem, but the world’s problems are not Europe’s problems.”
To be honest, this advice resounded throughout the world but had no impact whatsoever on the arrogant and evasive Western nations. Either knowing or unknowingly, the Western nations have been trying to trivialise the problems of the rest of the world and coercing the G-20 to focus exclusively on their own created, nurtured, and sustained problem—the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
Even with such a divided house and coercive pull from the West, India was able to forge a consensus on an issue that was not a problem of these greedy western nations. In fact, they give a damn about poor countries and their debt problems. These nations tried to put these existential issues under the rug to discuss THEIR own problem, the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
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Whether it is trade or vaccines or discussing their own problems in multilateral forums, Western nations have been completely undemocratic. They are vehemently pushing for ideas like friendshoring and near-shoring, among others. What they are pitching is that these Western nations will impose frameworks and even later sanctions to deal with things as per their wishes, which completely throws poor countries under the bus.
The UN has to redeem itself, otherwise multilateral organisations like the G20 will make it irrelevant. With India steering the group this year, New Delhi wants to lead from the front and demonstrate what an effective multilateral organisation does for the global good.
Contrary to its democratic portrayal, the UN and other organisations such as the IMF, WTO, and World Bank serve as the extended arms of Western or wealthy nations. The addition of poor and middle-income countries like South Africa and Nigeria to the notorious “grey list” is an example of their political benefit from these multinational forums.
India and other like-minded countries are doing things for poor countries selflessly and without PR gimmicks, such as amplifying the voice of the voiceless global south or the TRIPS waiver. For example, through the TRIPS waiver, India wanted poor countries to have easier access to vaccines, but it was stonewalled by these arrogant, greedy rich nations.
Similarly, India playing the role of first responder in times of crisis has greatly benefited poor countries in and around India and throughout the world.
India has demonstrated, both in the individual category as well as the presidency of these “Western-titled” elite groups, what can be done in the interest of poor countries even without their formal presence in the group. So, it is time for the world to reciprocate in kind for its own good. For example, if India is given a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, it will be able to do so on a more regular basis and on a larger scale and magnitude.
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