As India resumes its journey as the president of G20, the world hails with huge expectation and appreciation. Going by the potential—both economic and political—India is poised to make its mark in the world fora in the year under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. In a detailed panel discussion iTV Network’s English channel NewsX brings a broad perspective on what now needs to be achieved and why the next few months of a G20 presidency under India is so important for the world.
Diana Naraya, UN volunteer and human rights advisor, said, “As a person who is from Indonesia, it’s a country very close to India itself. I feel like India has such a history with Indonesia itself. It’s something that I learned from very early on in school, that both India and Indonesia pretty much went through the same thing in the past and that they have always been around helping one another. And that as a youth myself, I have been lucky enough to have had several opportunities with Indian people and they have always been super amazing. So that I think it’s my favorite going to India.”
Talking about India’s role in a larger perspective, she said “I feel like India has been seen as this country who enjoys working, but also India has its own issues and other countries has its own issue, but under all of each country is really necessary. And India has actually bring forward the knowledge to other people, to other countries that small countries like India and third world countries like India and Indonesia, we are actually capable of moving forward better and that we’re actually capable of doing more and to be seen in the eyes of the world in the future.”
Talking about the important economic and geostrategic priorities for Indonesia, she added that “I have seen many improvements in education, especially for two years. And also when it comes to studying economics and when it comes to actually participating in economy, there’s also many limitations. That’s what I hope to see improved under the Indian presidency in due time.”
Aaron Watson, consultant of Viva Asia Institute from Australia, while talking about Australian and India engagement said, “I think that Australia’s engagement with India and the accelerated nature of the relationship has probably less to do with Australian politics and more to do with regional geopolitics. Australia has been incredibly over reliant on China as a trade partner. We are incredibly dependent on the United States as a security partner. And obviously we’ve seen the consequences of that with recent decline of the relationship between Australia and China and also the increasing concerns around China in the region, whether that’s from both security or an economic coercion perspective.”
Talking about perception of India from an Australian perspective she said. “I think it depends on who you talk to. If you’re speaking to policymakers and you’re speaking to governments, then there will be a lot of discussion about the opportunities for security and military cooperation. And we’ve seen an increase in that area over recent times. So that comes down to national security. Then you have the economic side of things. And again, it depends on who you talk to within industry. So if you’re talking to the university sector, then of course India is the next hotbed of student recruitment. So from their perspective, they’re trying to replace the market that they’ve lost from China over recent years and trying to diversify that student market. You could say the same thing about Indonesia and some other big economies in the region as well.”
She added, “We know that with our recent trade agreement, it’s excluding sensitive industries. And we know that India in itself doesn’t liberalize say agriculture to Indian conglomerates. I am really pleased to see how India has taken the reins on the G 20 because for a couple of years, the ability for it to and multilateralism is really struggling at the moment, generally. And so to see how seriously it’s taking, even the engagement groups and the Secretariat and the way that they’ve been set up, and I’ve been asked to join one of the task forces myself. So I think that’s really impressive.”
Professor Tomoko Kyoto. She’s associate professor at the Nagasak University, talked about her perception of India. She said “The relations between India and Japan has strengthened since the middle of 2000, and especially the late former Prime Minister and Prime Minister Modi, and particularly in the security and strategic area. But in my view in Nagasaki, the Indian presence is very little. And we have only in Navajo University, we have only four Indian students so far. So we want to increase the students exchange as well as not only strategic area. “ She said, “Japan also expect lots from India, but as I said, because people’s exchange is very still not big as other countries compared to other countries. So still many people don’t understand India very well. We misunderstand each other sometimes. So I think that this presidency of G20 will be a great opportunity for Japanese people to know about India too. But we, of course, expect lots from India too.”
Talking about changing perception of India, she said “Japanese journalists also said that earlier when India was not that reach. Tokyo headquarters always ask them to write how India is poor. But right now, Tokyo asks the journalists to write more about India’s right side. So how India is developed and then how Indian IT technology is advanced right now. So the image in Japan is totally changed.”
Talking about concerns, she said, “I don’t think it’s the biggest concern because today I was watching Dr. Jaishankar’s speech and then he was also asked about the China, but he wisely avoided mentioning China and explaining that India will cooperate with any country in any agenda. And then I think India will do so. And then it’s very risky to have a conflict with other any countries. During India’s. Presidency of G20.”