With Scholz at the G20 in India
The Chancellor’s flap is well received – the summit declaration is not
From Nadine to Roxel, New Delhi
September 10, 2023, 7:35 p.m
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Olaf Scholz spends around 32 hours in New Delhi. The Chancellor traveled to the first meeting of the G20 in India. It was his most difficult summit to date, but also one in which the Chancellor was surprisingly the center of attention – but not because of the final declaration.
The expectations of this summit had already been reduced in advance in federal government circles. There would be tough negotiations, it was said during the journey. A joint text on the war of aggression against Ukraine and the issue of climate was particularly controversial. Nobody wanted to imagine that there would be no explanation and that the entire summit would fail. However, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his Finance Minister Christian Lindner did not go to Delhi euphorically.
The Indian side behaved quite differently. The country hosted the G20 summit for the first time and everyone should see it. Also the German Chancellor and his delegation. Immediately after arrival, on the way from Delhi airport to the city. There are posters everywhere with the likeness of Indian President Narendra Modi: “Welcome G20 Delegates”. Nothing is left to chance.
The security precautions are enormous, they have even managed to get Delhi’s notorious traffic under control – the center is practically cordoned off, the trees are lavishly decorated with flowers. Even the rhesus monkeys are kept away from the heads of state and government: large cardboard displays of langur monkeys drive the pests away from the streets of the capital. In addition, there are special monkey repellers in Delhi who imitate primate sounds to scare the animals away.
Successful, it seems: On the way to the congress center, only a few of the light brown rhesus monkeys can be seen on the sidewalks. When the world is a guest, the cheeky animals shouldn’t disturb you.
Minimal consensus with hanging and choking
The joint summit declaration was finally ready on Saturday afternoon. A great success, it sold not only to India, but also to Olaf Scholz. The other heads of state and government are also satisfied, even Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov. So much agreement with such big differences proves what one can think of the declaration: it is a minimal consensus and, on top of that, one that was only achieved with hanging and choking.
There is no clear condemnation of the war of aggression against Ukraine, but Russia has purely negotiated its demand to allow grain and fertilizer transport from Russia again. Olaf Scholz highlights the statement that the territorial sovereignty of every country must be guaranteed as a particular success. Something that should actually be taken for granted in the 21st century.
With this softened compromise, the heads of state and government are saving their own summit. And because it was unclear for a long time whether New Delhi would even be able to enforce the blockade by Russia and China, the federal government is almost vehemently defending a G20 declaration that falls short of its own claims.
“Everyone had heard about it”
And hosts India also have to make compromises, although nothing was left to chance. But despite all the Modi posters in New Delhi, it was someone else who attracted attention at the summit: the chancellor, who has been wearing an eye patch since his jogging accident. Almost every other head of state and government asks him about it, and many conversations start like this. No wonder, after all, the Chancellor’s flap cannot be overlooked.
“Everyone asked how it happened and wished me the best recovery,” revealed Scholz in an interview with ntv and RTL. “Everyone had already heard about it, because it was somehow noticed around the world that I was now walking around with an eye patch for a short time.”
It was the Chancellor’s most difficult summit to date, but not because the view was restricted, but because an agreement on the summit declaration was so complicated and the fronts so hardened. When Scholz drives back towards the airport with his eye patch, suddenly some of the specially expelled rhesus monkeys are sitting in the trees again. Host India also has to make compromises.