US President Joe Biden arrived in India for the G20 Summit. Biden will be staying at the ITC Maurya Hotel in Delhi for the duration of the summit.

Biden is among the major leaders from the Group of 20 (G20) nations who are participating in the G20 Summit scheduled to be held on September 9 and September 10.

Police personnel and paramilitary have already been deployed outside the hotel while vehicular movement has been restricted on some roads. The US Secret Service commandos will reportedly man the ITC Maurya hotel during the US President’s stay.

In a tweet on Friday, Joe Biden shared that he was headed to India for the G20 Summit.

Union Minister VK Singh receives US President Joe Biden at the airport. The President will head to PM’s residence for bilateral.

Before the Summit, Biden will hold bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi today.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who is in Delhi to attend the G20 summit, made some important remarks on geopolitics and climate response, which is slated to be the crux of the issues along with the Russia-Ukraine war also in focus at the summit.

These were the main points enlisted by Mr Guterres

• Climate crisis spiralling out of control
• G20 leaders should focus on two areas – climate and SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)
• G20 countries are responsible for 80% of global emissions
• We resemble a dysfunctional global family
• The global fracturing spells catastrophe
• Our multilateral institutions reflect a bygone age
• Global financial architecture outdated, dysfunctional, unfair
• Climate crisis worsening dramatically, wars multiplying
• Global solidarity on poverty, hunger and inequalities is missing
• India has done everything possible to represent the interests of the global south
• India has indeed stood by its promise to put the development agenda at the G20’s centre
• Not for me to decide whether India should be a part of the UNSC
• I believe we need reforms in UNSC to reflect the world’s realities
• Not hopeful for a peace solution in Russia-Ukraine war in the near future

No consensus on ‘Delhi Declaration’ as G20 split over Russia-Ukraine war

Member states could not arrive at a consensus on the ‘Delhi Declaration’ at the last round of Sherpa talks after India’s proposal on the paragraph addressing the Ukraine conflict seemingly fell short of finding middle ground.

The highly anticipated G20 summit in New Delhi finds itself embroiled in discord as the final Sherpa meeting, aimed at fine-tuning the ‘Delhi Declaration’, culminated without consensus.

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine and the multifaceted intricacies surrounding climate change policy is where issues are expected to be challenging as the G20 leaders seek to iron out these differences.

India’s proposal addressing the Ukraine conflict has not been met with consensus, as the host nation looks to satisfy the demands of both the West on one side and the Russia-China faction on the other.

The US, UK, and the EU, have expressed their reservations regarding the proposal, which they feel does not sufficiently address Russia’s military actions in Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met at the ASEAN summit in Jakarta in an attempt to untangle the deadlock, underlining the complex geopolitical equations involved.

India would look to stay clear of the unenviable record of being the first presiding country unable to issue a leaders’ declaration.

Disagreements also abound on key climate strategies encompassing fossil fuel utilization, renewable energy benchmarks, and greenhouse gas emission targets.

India finds itself among the nations — including Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia — opposing the Western proposition of exponentially increasing renewable energy capacity by 2030 coupled with a substantial reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.

Saudi Arabia is particularly concerned owing to its obvious standing in the global economy, as a fossil fuel- dependent economy.

India has been talking about the ‘first movers advantage’ that the developed world has had over the developing nations and ensuring a level-playing field for the Global South to catch up.

Interestingly, the Delhi government is planning to build more waste-to-energy plants to burn an additional 6,000 tons of mixed garbage, with citizens saying this might to the pollution woes for the city’s residents, who already live in one of the most polluted cities on the planet.

Globally, the economically developed nations missed their pledge to provide, by 2020, $100 billion a year in climate finance to poorer nations, which has put a question mark on the intent of the ‘historical’ polluters in helping vulnerable countries who have had little to do with global warming.

With divergent views clouding the potential of arriving at a unified ‘Delhi Declaration’, the New Delhi summit stands at a critical juncture.

As leaders converge on September 9-10, there is an underlying anticipation of how the G20 nations will navigate this mosaic of divergent perspectives and the potential avenues of consensus they can forge at this global stage, with ramifications that transcend beyond the summit, shaping the geopolitical landscape in the times to come.

The forthcoming COP28 meeting in the United Arab Emirates later this year looms as another vital arena where climate discussions will continue further.

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