Victory for Modi: World media hails successful G20 Summit in Delhi

The world media has hailed India's successful organisation of the G-20 Summit, describing its outcome as a diplomatic victory for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is pushing to increase the country's influence on the world stage and pressing for reforms in global institutions, including the United Nations.

India managed to hammer out the unexpected consensus among the G20 countries on the contentious Ukraine conflict through a series of hectic negotiations with emerging economies such as Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia playing a leading role in reaching the agreement on the declaration on the first day of the summit.

The New Delhi summit declaration also called for reforming of international financial institutions, managing debt vulnerabilities of low and middle-income countries and the start of the exchange of tax-relevant information on crypto assets by 2027.

"Some experts saw the agreement as a win for Russia, while others read it as an achievement for the West. But most concurred it was a foreign policy triumph for Modi as he pushes to increase India’s influence on the world stage," Associated Press wrote in an article titled 'India forges compromise among divided world powers at the G20 summit in a diplomatic win for Modi’.

Bloomberg said that the G-20 has consolidated the rise of India's prime minister to world leader status in its article 'And The Winner of This Year’s G-20 is…’.

"I think this was an unadulterated win, both for India and for Modi personally," journalist John Reed was quoted as saying in the Financial Times in an article titled 'India shines at G20 summit’.

Modi's decision to parlay his rotating G20 presidency into a year-long platform to promote India’s culture, foreign policy goals, and ambition to serve as a leader of the so-called Global South developing countries has paid off, the London-based business newspaper quoted analysts as saying.

Swiss French-language daily newspaper Le Temps' article 'The African Union becomes a permanent member of the G20' says the African Union's entry into the G20 is a notable diplomatic victory for Modi, who carried the initiative and thus restores the image of the Indian leader abroad before he seeks a new mandate next year.

"What the G20 presidency for India has underlined is the country's growing role in multilateral diplomacy and emerging as a voice which must be heard," said an article in the Gulf News.

In an article 'Who are the G20’s bad guys now?' Politico said this is India’s moment in the sun. Modi’s government has used its stint in the chair to show it can play a more assertive role in the global order. India’s self-confidence as it hosts the global shindig signals a deeper geopolitical shift.

An opinion piece by an Indian professor published in the China Daily titled ‘The Global South should have a bigger voice’ said India has set several new benchmarks during its G20 presidency. To begin with, never before has any country holding the G20 presidency witnessed so many meetings in so many cities preceding the summit, the article in the state-run English-language newspaper said.

The Guardian article ‘Watered-down G20 statement on Ukraine is sign of India’s growing influence’ said that softening of the language of the declaration was out of deference to Modi’s need for a clear diplomatic win that the US did not push the Ukraine issue to deadlock. It is hard to underestimate how important the Democrat administration sees India, a powerful rival to China, according to the leading British newspaper.

The Lowy Institute article by Ian Hall ‘India pushes China to the margins of the G20’ said that India’s marginalisation of China at the G20 follows on from these efforts to curtail Beijing’s influence. For the moment, they might be working, the article says.

Some interpret Chinese President Xi Jinping's refusal to attend the G20 summit as a tacit acknowledgement that the forum no longer serves China’s interests. "If that is so, it will be partly due to New Delhi’s hard work, as well as China’s mishandling of a crucial bilateral relationship," the article in the Sydney-based think tank website says.

The Newsweek article 'China Blindsided by Historic Challenge To Belt and Road Project at G20' said the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor is a historic initiative. It poses a direct challenge to China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) by providing countries in the region with an alternative for infrastructure development and economic cooperation.