Pedro González
Journalist
When Chinese President Xi Jinping decided to absent himself from the G20 summit in New Delhi and chose to receive Nicolás Maduro, the dictator who subjugates Venezuela, in Beijing, he knew what he was doing. He did not want to appear capitimised in front of the host, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the real winner of a meeting that almost foundered and was saved thanks to the diplomatic virtuosity embodied in the final declaration.
In the arduously negotiated document, Ukraine has seen the tone of condemnation of Russia reflected in the previous meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali toned down. On the other hand, Russia was very satisfied with the final recommendation that, after noting the human suffering caused by the war, “calls on all countries to refrain from threats or the use of force to seek territorial conquest in the face of the sovereignty and independence of every state”. All very abstract, then, with no mention of Russian President Vladimir Putin or his invasion of Ukraine. As much as any European or North American might think of it when reading such a paragraph, it can also be applied to any of the numerous conflicts currently underway across the globe.
This major stumbling block having been overcome, Modi also certified in the Indian capital the African Union’s entry into the group, with the same observer status as the European Union. This partnership is all the more important because it will effectively incorporate the 1.5 billion citizens of the continent’s 55 countries.
On the day before the official start of the summit, US President Joe Biden reinforced his political and commercial commitments to Narendra Modi, and launched a major initiative to launch a gigantic railway network linking the Middle East and Asia in particular. An alternative project to China’s New Silk Road that, if realised, would take away Xi Jinping’s monopoly on his gigantic and successful international cooperation project. Obviously, India would be the origin, stopover and destination of a multiplied volume of goods, a commercial chapter that would enormously boost its power and influence.
That Beijing has closely scrutinised these developments is demonstrated by the fact that it has called for a large-scale meeting in the coming weeks with the countries that in one way or another have been integrated into its One Belt, One Road project, in principle to evaluate its development and its possibilities for transformation and empowerment. And, at the same time, to counteract the rise of its large Asian neighbour, which has become an increasingly important rival.
This was the culmination of a series of milestones that had brought India to the forefront of the world. The most important of these was the installation of an observation laboratory at the moon’s south pole on 23 August, in a race in which Russia had failed a few days earlier when it had failed to land its own device on the moon and ended up crashing into its surface. In early September, India would seal its space ambitions with the launch of a solar probe, thus joining the still very restricted club of countries aspiring to conquer and colonise space.
The Indian leader has also used the occasion to subtly assert his nationalism. He has done so by using his country’s Hindi name, Bharat, which has never before been used in international events. It has appeared both on the country’s nameplates on the meeting tables and on the badges and stickers of civil servants and official cars. Most of the delegations attending the G20 have thus learnt that India is Bharat in Hindi. Perhaps this is just a first step towards a definitive name change for the most populous country on Earth, which would then involve attributing colonial connotations or vestiges to India, which would then justify the new politically correct name.
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