The joint declaration is “almost ready”, said India’s G-20 ‘Sherpa’ Amitabh Kant, indicating that the Sherpas or leaders’ representatives for G-20 countries will now hand over the document to G-20 leaders who begin their summit on September 9 in an effort to close the gaps, mainly over the paragraph on Ukraine. Mr. Kant also downplayed issues with China during the negotiations, and said that while all countries have a “veto power” over the joint statement to be issued, India had been able to bring “every single country” on board with its priorities.
“Our New Delhi declaration is almost ready”, Mr. Kant said at a briefing ahead of the G-20 summit on Friday. “The New Delhi leaders’ declaration which you will see after the Summit, will have the voice of the Global South and developing countries. No document in the world would have such a strong voice for the developing countries,” he added. Speaking about the finance track, Economic Affairs Secretary Ajay Seth, who is also the Co-Chair of the Finance track of negotiations, said the delegates had a particularly “rich and intense” discussion on reform of multilateral development banks including the IMF, and India was “highly hopeful that discourse over the past nine months will get a positive consideration from the leaders.”
