Round The World
New Delhi, 18 June 2021
G7 Changes Gear
NEW DELHI HITCH-HIKES
By Dr D.K.Giri
(Prof. International Politics, JIMMC)
The G7 Summit in
Cornwall, the Southeast coast of England was significant on more than one count,
unlike in the past. The Summit turned a new page with active return of the
United States to the table, as it was emaciated by latter’s vacillation under
the tumultuous tenure of Donald Trump. It made a bold and historic proclamation
of formation of a ‘coalition of democracies’ against autocracies. The Summit
named China the main adversary as a system-threat. And New Delhi, at the behest
of the UK, backed by France and the US, seamlessly hitch-hiked to the G7
caravan.
The Summit made some
serious decisions on the emerging international issues, that were listed mainly
under three rubrics in the 25-page communique issued after three days
deliberations from 11 to13 June. They were the 3Cs of current concerns of heads
of seven countries gathered there -- China, Covid and Climate change.
G7 comprises seven
advanced economies, which are all liberal democracies marked by pluralism and
representative governments. The grouping began as an informal, ad hoc
arrangement. In the wake of oil crisis in 1973, US Secretary of Treasury George
Shultz called a meeting of Finance Ministers of Germany, France, Britain to
discuss collaborative actions to deal with the situation. The meeting was held
in a library building in Washington DC. So initially the group of 4 was called
the Library group. In mid-1973, on US’ suggestion, Japan was included in the
group to make it G5. Then two more countries joined the group-- Italy in 1975
and Canada in 1976, to make it G7.
In 1998, following
the transition of the Soviet Union into democratic politics, Russia was invited
to join the group. Again in 2014, in the wake of Russia annexing Crimea, its
membership was suspended and later terminated. Other countries are invited as
guests from time to time in order to ‘deepen the expertise and experience’
around the table.India has been attending the G7 meetings since 2003 as a special
guest.
The countries invited
to the Summit included India, Australia, South Korea and South Africa. There
was some hint at expanding the group to 11 and call it D11, but no such
decision was taken. However, the more expanded group called G20 will meet in
Italy next month. This Group includes India and China as well. It will be
interesting to watch how China will be treated in this meeting.
G7 obviously targeted
China mentioning it four times in its final communique. Beijing has sharply
reacted. The spokesman of the Chinese embassy in London said, “The day when
global decisions were dictated by small group of countries are long gone”.
The Summit in Cabis
Bay was mainly to build a coalition of democracies to counter the growing
influence of China. This was in keeping with the fresh initiative taken by Joe
Biden for consolidating democracy in the world. Soon after he took over, he has
been sounding out to US allies and partners to organise a World Democracy summit.
The G7 countries reiterated their resolve to deepen democracy, “We will harness
the power of democracy, freedom, equality, the rule of law, and respect for
human rights to answer the biggest questions and overcome the greatest
challenges”.
Biden revealed the ‘push-back
China’ strategy when he said, “democracies are in a contest with autocracies, G7stood
united anew in its democratic values.”. The G7 said, “We will promote our
values including by calling on China to respect human rights and fundamental
freedoms”. This is the point of entry for India into this coalition. Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, digitally addressing the session on Open Societies and Open
Economies, highlighted India’s civilisational commitment to democracy, freedom
of thought and speech. He pointed out “authoritarianism, terrorism, violentextremism,
disinformation and economic coercion as big challenges facing the world today.”
New Delhi has to leverage
its political assets for buildingcoalition against external aggression and
economic coercion. Although Modi did not mention China in his speech, it was
obvious,coinciding with G7’s reference
point.
But New Delhi will
have to walk the talk. India has had the largest number of internet shutdowns
in 2020. India is getting a bad press internationally for slapping sedition
cases, arresting those questioning official policies, raiding offices of
newspapers and social media. These do not bode well for India’s unsullied image
on democracy and human rights. In a way, it is good that India is shedding off
the image of soft-State, but the transformation should manifest in maintenance
of law and order, apprehending and punishing the economic offenders, criminals,
and fending off external threats and bullying, not in going after dissenting
voices.
Minister for External
Affairs Jaishankar participating in the Ministerial meeting of G7 earlier on had
said, “opensocieties and personal freedoms require careful nurturing. It must
be on guard against fake news and digital manipulation”. It is true that anyone
spreading disinformation that causes social disharmony, conflicts and harm,
should be brought to book. The harmless fake news could be ignored by the State
and be left to the internet users to decide for themselves. The media handles
could also have some mechanism for factcheck etc.
On Covid, G7 endorsed
the US initiative for a thorough probe into the origin of the virus. It said, “We
call for a timely, transparent, expert-led and science-based, WHO-convened
phase-2 Covid-origin-19 study including as recommended by the experts’ Report in
China.” Even WHO has called upon China to help in the renewed investigation,
but it remains defiant. Beijing suggested that covid virus was found first in
USA, then it changed to Italy, and one of its studies suggested it came from
monkeys in India which were fighting amongst themselves for water etc. China
then said, it originated simultaneously in many counties but Beijing was first
in reporting it. However, despite China’s diversion and disinformation, the
probe is back on the front burner.
G7 promised to raise
$12 trillion on pandemic recovery plan. It also promised to supply 1 billion
doses of vaccines to the world. But this is too little as the world needs 11 to
12 billion doses.Only 0.3 per cent of the vaccines has gone to the poorest in
the world. Perhaps India can fill the void, if the IPR on vaccine is waived.
India supported by South Africa made this request. France has also called upon
the fellowG7 members to help India access raw material for vaccine production.
It was resolved to
enhance the climate finance. The G7 said, “we reaffirm the collective developed
countries’ goal to jointly mobilise $100 billion a year from public and private
sources through to 2025 in the context of meaning formitigation actions”. It
was also agreed to scale up technologies and policies to speed up the
transition away from unabated coal capacity. This issue could be further firmed
up in the UN Climate Change Conference (COP-26) in November.
The other major
decision was to build an alternative to Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)
which created a debt-trap, by a project called Building Back Better for the
World, acronymed B3W. India is inclined to join this initiative as it had
refused to be a part of BRI.
To conclude, the
bugle has been blown by the G7 to counter China. India is a part of the march.
It better play its part resolutely strategically. --INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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