G20 summit a crowning moment for India; a loss for China: President of U.S.-India Strategic and Partnership Forum

India's success at G-20 Summit crowns its diplomatic success, reflects PM Modi's leadership. India's involvement of cities, communique, and focus on "One Earth, One Family, One Future" shows its rising power and diplomatic skills. China's absence created a vacuum for Biden and Modi to drive their agenda.

The just concluded G-20 Leaders' Summit in New Delhi wherein the communique reflected the success of Indian diplomacy, is a crowning moment for India and a big loss for China, the head of an India-centric American business advocacy and strategic group said on Tuesday.

“So basically, two things came out. One is that you have a single communique coming out, but more important is that India came out as the leader of the Global South. That also means that it was a loss for China because they did not send their president there,” Mukesh Aghi, the president of the U.S.-India Strategic and Partnership Forum, told PTI in an interview.

“G-20 is a crowning moment for India. Congratulations to the (Indian) leadership,” Mr. Aghi said, adding: “And to be honest, we were surprised when we heard that there was a communique coming out because we thought there would be no communique coming out (of G-20)."

“They (Indian leadership) delivered, not just only on the messaging, but the process also. For the first time, we saw G-20 where you had so many cities in India engaged in pre-G-20 meetings. The whole country was involved, and all major cities were involved. That means you spruce up the city, you build the cities, making sure the guests have a positive impression about the city,” the businessperson said days after the conclusion of the historic G-20 Summit in New Delhi.

“It led to the session, which when G-20 came in, and I think to get the communique out in a fractured world shows the success of Indian diplomacy. It shows the success of the leadership of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi. So, I would say it was a tremendous success from a global perspective,” Mr. Aghi said.

The decision of Chinese President Xi Jinping not to attend the G-20 Summit was in fact a blessing in disguise, he felt.

“I would say that President Xi not coming in, basically created a vacuum where President Biden and Prime Minister Modi could drive their agenda much more freely and they were able to get a communique out,” he said.