What the world's biggest countries want out of the G20 summit in New Delhi

For host country India, the G20 summit this weekend (Sept. 9-10) is a massive opportunity to spearhead long-term, structural changes around the world—and curry favor at home and abroad.

India got to pick the theme of the summit—“Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” or “One Earth · One Family · One Future”—and lead the way on the issues the leaders will tackle. It’s chosen a wide array of them, from sustainability and healthcare to equitable growth and debt forgiveness for developing nations.

The G20 cohort comprising finance ministers and central bank governors was first formed in 1999, in the aftermath of the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. After the global financial crisis of 2007-2008, the heads of state started participating, convening with the goal of “international economic cooperation.” India’s hosting the forum for the first time.

The G20 presidency, if done right, would be a good look for prime minister Narendra Modi. The leader is not only savoring the prestige of chairing the G20 and but also positioning himself as a prominent world leader mere months ahead of India’s 2024 national elections. The messaging is far from subtle. His smiling face is plastered across all billboards throughout the country and the G20 logo of a globe with a lotus—coincidentally, the election symbol for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—is everywhere. Will it be enough to eclipse other domestic issues like soaring youth unemployment and surging communal conflicts, only time will tell.

A non-exhaustive list of what’s on the agenda for G20 attendees

🇺🇸 US: For president Joe Biden, etching a joint railway project in the Middle East is top of mind. Along with the leaders of India, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, Biden is set to announce a major joint infrastructure deal that will connect Gulf and Arab countries via a network of railways, Axios reported, citing two anonymous sources. It will also connect to India through shipping lanes from ports in the region. A brief bilateral meeting between Biden and Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman on the sidelines of the G20 is looking increasingly plausible.

US treasury secretary Janet Yellen is also in attendance. She’s focused on the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, and equipping the world with other financial resources. In the same vein, Biden has also floated World Bank reform as an agenda item.

🇬🇧 UK: Prime minister Rishi Sunak and “India’s son-in-law”—he’s married to the daughter of one of India’s richest entrepreneurs, Infosys’s Narayana Murthy—will likely prioritize making headway with the long-awaited UK-India free trade agreement on his visit. “The trade deal, once promised to be ‘done by Diwali’ (October 2022), is expected to lower tariffs on British goods and services to a huge consumer market in exchange for easier access for Indian importers (such as textiles) to UK markets and more visas for Indian students and workers,” the British Foreign Policy Group writes. “With concerns about migration levels high on the domestic political agenda, the latter remains a major sticking point.”

🇷🇺 Russia: Premier Vladimir Putin skipped the event but sent his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. During the 2022 summit in Bali, Indonesia, Lavrov made an untimely exit over the Russia-Ukraine conflict. (Russia claimed he left as planned.) To avoid conflict, India yesterday (Sept. 7) diplomatically proposed that a G20 statement condemning the war in Ukraine also accommodate the views of Russia and China. If a consensus on the joint statement is not reached, it’ll be the first time in G20 history that happens.

🇨🇳 China: To say India and China have a contentious relationship would be an understatement. Most recently, a Chinese standard map left India rattled. Despite the US urging otherwise, China seems to be fixated on geopolitical tensions over contributing to the prestigious international meeting. Leader Xi Jinping is skipping the do, sending Chinese premier Li Qiang instead.

Quotable: G20 is a balancing act for India

“New Delhi views the G20 presidency as an opportunity to show that it has the capacity to serve as a bridge to the Global South; that it can show India’s ability to manage relations with rival powers.”

—Michael Kugelman, the director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington, to TIME magazine.

By the digits: G20 countries account for...

🦬 85% of the world’s economic output

🤑 75% of the world’s trade

🫥 67% of the world’s population

🏞️ 60% of the world’s land area between the 20 members—19 countries and the European Union (EU) bloc

One more thing: Delhi’s clean-up act for the G20 summit

🚜 Ahead of the summit, Delhi razed slums and unofficial housing, forcefully evicting and displacing thousands. About 300,000 street vendors have also been expelled from the center of the capital.

🐒 The government put cardboard cutouts of langurs around Central Delhi to ward monkeys away. Around 40 humans have been trained and deployed to make langur noises to scare away smaller monkeys that traipse around the city.

🐕 Animal activists have raised alarm about the ways in which stray dogs were forcefully and at times cruelly removed from their localities by municipal workers using rods and nooses. The Animal Birth Control Rules explicitly prohibit relocation of stray dogs. Local authorities deny breaking the law.

🎥 Several movie theaters, including four operated by the country’s largest multiplex chain, PVR, were shut as superstar Shahrukh Khan’s Jawan premiered in theaters on Sept. 7. The screens will remain dark for the weekend of the summit. But the movie will do just fine. It made 50 crore rupees ($6 million) in just pre-bookings, beating the opening record for Khan’s previous blockbuster release, Pathan, this past January.

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