Sir,
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 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”.
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.
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.
Dr D K Giri
New Delhi
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