India and Multilateralism in the Changing Global Order

 Keywords: Multilateralism, Global Order, Great Powers, India, G20, G7

Date: 27 May 2023

India’s and Japan’s presidency of the G20 and G7 respectively, comes at a critical juncture in international affairs. As great power rivalry between the United States and China grows more confrontational, the need for multilateral cooperation is becoming ever more pertinent.

Multipolarity has been on the rise with several consequential powers, of which India and Japan are clear examples, claiming a stake on how the international order is managed.  However, multilateralism is effective only when the great powers of the times are able to regulate their competition and prevent escalation of tensions.

The global pandemic and the Ukraine crisis, in different ways, have severely tested the ability to evolve multilateral consensus. Even so, in the absence of any viable alternative to finding solutions to problems of international relations, the only practical option is by engineering multilateral mechanisms, combining even rival powers and regardless of the prevailing configuration of powers, be it bipolar, unipolar and multipolar world.

From the bipolar Cold War through the brief phase of American unipolarity to the emerging multipolar era, multilateralism has been the operating mechanism for inter-state negotiations on issues covering both the economic and security realms.

The 21^st century international relations face serious challenges that require countries to find ways of incentivizing cooperation, such as in dealing with climate change and sustainable development, post-pandemic global health security or the governance of new technologies like Artificial Intelligence.

Multilateralism is intertwined with global politics wherein multiple actors negotiate across a spectrum of multiple interests. From negotiating the end of wars to managing the spread of nuclear weapons and other high-impact military technologies, from building a global financial structure to navigating the role of the United Nations in a rapidly changing security environment, multilateralism has remained a quintessential feature of international relations.

The rise of new powers and a shift in the balance of power often calls for a reformed multilateralism as witnessed in India’s aspirations for a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) or multilateral institutions like the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) calling for reforms in the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Multilateral platforms like the G20, which became prominent post the financial crisis of 2008, aspires to reflect the current realities of the world order, cutting across regions and different political systems. Amidst the changing global power dynamics, older groupings like the G7 are recalibrating for relevance.

The G7 provides a much more conducive and consensual platform to discuss how to provide military assistance to Ukraine, against Russia and condemn China’s assertive behaviour across the Indo-Pacific. On the contrary, the G20, owing to its diverse membership, shows a more complex negotiating field, and India, during its presidency of the grouping, has been manoeuvring this minefield of new great power rivalry. 

Older multilateral organisations like the European Union (EU) and the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) continue to reinvent themselves to remain relevant. The EU practices its own balancing act of cementing its western alliance with the United States, and engaging a new distant power like China, while facing the repercussions of the Ukraine war.

Even as major stakeholders of the Indo-Pacific have propounded ASEAN centrality, ASEAN countries are knee-deep in their strategies in dealing with a proximate power like China, by engaging with a distant power like the United States and other like-minded countries wary of China’s unregulated rise.

Closer home, the relative failure of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), has led to multilateral groupings like the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) finding regional solutions to problems of national development and growth.

The current calls for reformed multilateralism come at a time of transformative global balance of power. The rise of China and its thirst for global status commensurate with the United States, and the repositioning of global concerns relating to this dynamic is at the heart of this quest for effective multilateralism in an emerging multipolar world.

Any move towards transformed multilateralism ranging from financial governance to crisis management calls for a churning of the prevailing power arrangement. Some of the persistent dilemmas of power sharing and re-arrangement will continue to animate the contours of multilateralism, but multilateral cooperation in some form or the other is here to stay.

Delhi’s approach to world affairs is premised as a bridge between the developed and developing countries and as a medium of communication between differing political values. India’s voice has been one of inclusiveness, in a world increasingly driven apart by global great power rivalry and regional rifts. India has vouched for effective multilateralism which is non-discriminatory and sincere in its drive towards building a rules-based order.

India’s foreign policy is grounded not on starkly listing out friends and foes, but rather, it has maintained a pragmatic response in lieu of the security threats prevalent in its region and beyond. Such an approach puts Delhi at the forefront of building a global order which is not only “open and rules-based” but also “inclusive” as captured in India’s vision of the Indo-Pacific region.

India’s opportunity to shape the G20’s global agenda and hence the future of multilateralism itself comes at a time when India’s voice for growth and development is increasingly being heard, but implementation faces the twin challenge of deteriorating regional security environments and de-globalisation. 

The motto of India’s G2O presidency “One Earth, One Family, One Future” has already captivated the attention of the member countries. However, the real test for Delhi would be in aligning national strategies for global and regional peace and prosperity in the midst of strategic uncertainties characterized by major power transition from the old to the new order. 

Monish Tourangbam is an Associate Professor at the Amity Institute of International Studies (AIIS), Amity University (Noida) and Honorary Director of the Kalinga Institute of Indo-Pacific Studies (KIIPS)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above and the information available are those of the author/s and can therefore in no way be taken to reflect the position of Asian Confluence