This week the world remained as happening as it always is. Though few nations still go by the conventional definition of power to assert their presence in global politics (read: China), there are nations that are promoting the constructivist definition of power (read: India) and are trying to change the entire ball game of the global politics by promoting collaboration instead of competition to grow. India is hosting the ministerial meet of G-20 leaders with a focus on sustainable development and environment protection this week, which is a prioritised agenda for G-20 as well as the world. India is calling upon not only the member nations of G-20, but the entire world to contribute to this critical objective. On the other hand, China is busy in conducting aggressive exercises in and around Indo-Pacific region. However, this week it faced embarrassment at the global level for eliminating its ‘disappeared’ Foreign Minister (FM) and appointing Wang Yi as the new FM (what he did for over a decade though!) A positive news came from the US as it announced destruction of its remaining stockpiles of chemical weapons.
India hosts fourth meet of Environment and Climate Working Group
The fourth meet of Environment and Climate Sustainability Working Group (ECSWG) and Environment and Climate Ministers under India’s G20 Presidency is going on in Chennai. The focus remains on containing land degradation, enriching biodiversity and accelerating ecosystem restoration by endorsing blue economy. Blue economy is already a focused area for India as the Indian PM has mentioned promoting it as a part of his vision for new India by 2030 in his various addresses. India is also calling upon the member nations to take up resource efficiency as a prioritised objective. India’s objective is to unite nations, industries, and experts to adopt a collective step towards nurturing actual efforts in resource efficiency and advancing the principles of circular economy. The onus lies on the member nations of G-20 how they take this up and identify holistic solutions that could help in resolving multidimensional challenge of climate and environment degradation. Hope G-20 can come up with sustainable solutions in a democratic way to protect mother nature!
China appoints Wang Yi as new FM
While the world is busy in collaborating and finding out solutions for various global challenges, China is sticked to its conventional diplomacy of aggression. But this week, the world witnessed what happens ‘in’ China as the news of appointment of Wang Yi as its new FM shocked the world. It was not shocking to see Wang as the Chinese FM as he has already worked on this position for over a decade. The world is stunned on the disappearance of its earlier FM Qin Gang who was a blue-eyed boy of Xi. Despite knowing the opaque nature of China as a nation and the fact that it is Communist Party that runs the show in China, it is actually shocking to see the government is not at all bothered about its disappeared FM. There are news reports that suggest that he had an extramarital affair with a news reporter in China of US origin. But was this the reason Qin disappeared? Or it is something else for which the blue-eyed boy of the Chinese President has been replaced with a staunch loyalist of Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and the head of China’s top foreign policy decision-making body? This seems to be fishy and though it will not impact the foreign policy of China much (as the ministries run on the tunes of Xi, anyways!), it should be probed what actually is going on in the internal politics of China.
US moves closer to disarmament and peace
This week, the US announced destruction of all its remaining stockpiles of chemical weapons. What a wonderful news for those who believe in global peace and disarmament! This is indeed a historic milestone in the journey of the world towards eradicating chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction. Despite having Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) in place, there are nations that possess chemical and biological weapons. It is very difficult to trace them due to their dual nature (the same agent can be used as a medicine as well as a weapon). With the destruction of the last remaining weaponry of the US Army stockpile containing chemical weapons, the world can take a sigh of relief as this step of the US has strengthened CWC, which is a commitment to control the manufacture and use of such weapons since its ratification in 1997, and the mandate of its Congress given in 1986 to destroy its entire stockpile of chemical weapons.
This is what a person standing at the grass-root level of the world wants. Pure air and water, good surroundings to live, good food to eat and the sense of security. This wish created families, societies and the nations.
But we forgot this very basic reason behind creating this entire cobweb of global politics and started playing only at the top-most level to acquire more power. That’s why India is taking the bottoms-up approach in global politics to remind the world about the person standing at the grass-root level. Hope the leaders take a cue from here to cooperate and
collaborate.