With just over 40 days to go for the G20 Leaders’ Summit, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday said that consensus is emerging on several critical issues, such as use of digital public goods to deliver benefits to citizens and on the need for climate action, amid a clear statement from India that it will pitch for an ambitious outcome during its presidency.

“Issues are live on the agenda. There is consensus and the desire to move forward and not hopelessness. It is constructive, we are going to move forward. The communique need not just distract us, action is happening,” she said at an event organised by Aspen.

While the focus at several of the ministerial meetings has been on a chair’s summary being issued – with gaps on the Ukraine conflict – as opposed to a communique, reflecting the consensus across issues, G20 Sherpa Amitabh Kant said that India had put forward an ambitious agenda before the G20 membership and there’s broad consensus on most issues, barring the Russia-Ukraine war.

At most ministerial meetings we are getting an outcome document, which reflects consensus on the issues, barring two-three paras. This means that everyone has agreed on the issues. We are not pushing a middle ground, we have pushed as much as possible and the building blocks are in place,” Kant said, adding that so far during India’s presidency, 182 meetings had taken place across 58 cities.

Following an event on the green and sustainability agenda for G20, organised by Niti Aayog, Kant said that there was a need for resources for climate transition to flow to the developing countries, which are now driving global growth.
At the Aspen event, Sitharaman also underlined the need to reform multilateral institutions to address issues related to global public goods, under which climate action is a key item of India’s interest.

Sitharaman listed the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and the Asian Development Bank as the four priorities for India. She also emphasized the need to strengthen the capacity of these institutions to generate and attract more resources, including from the market and private sector. She stated that an expert group led by former US Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Chairman of the 15th Finance Commission NK Singh had recommended the reform path in their report.

The minister stated that India wants a quicker resolution to the debt crisis that is affecting many nations, including Sri Lanka, and indicated that in addition to the already prepared shared framework, outside solutions may be explored, where nations like China could play a role,  join the efforts. Beijing has been a key stumbling block and is holding up the issue. She added regulation of crypto assets and ‘digital public infrastructure’ are priority items for India.

(With input source)