Building of India's G20 Presidency; focus on continuity: Brazil Ambassador Kenneth da Nóbrega

Ahead of the G20 Summit, Brazil Ambassador to India Kenneth da Nóbrega has said that India's G20 Presidency has helped his country in negotiations. Speaking to WION's correspondent Sidhant Sibal, Ambassador Nóbrega said, "You (India) managed to pull off this agreement on geopolitical issues in your joint statement, was key for us to build and to achieve".

Brazil's Rio de Janeiro is set to host a two-day G20 summit starting Monday. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in Brazil to attend the summit.

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The Brazilian Ambassador pointed out that the "Brazilian presidency, to a considerable extent, is a continuity of your (India's) G20 presidency, in the sense of giving more legitimacy to the G20." Among the key focus areas of Brazil's G20 presidency are reforms of global institutions like the UN.

Full interview:

WION: What is expected from the G20 summit?

Kenneth da Nóbrega: Three priorities. First, fighting hunger and poverty. Second, fighting climate change. Third, making progress in terms of promoting the reform of global institutions of multilateral governance. These are the three priorities of the Brazilian presidency.

WION: Speaking of challenges in dealing with hunger, can you give details about the alliance which is being launched

Kenneth da Nóbrega: As a matter of fact, we can already speak of results achieved by the Brazilian presidency. Of course, we're still to agree on the joint statement. The presidency will end on December 1. But in July, a task force was launched to fight hunger and poverty. Basically, this task force is a platform where you can find good examples of programs to alleviate hunger and poverty, you can find also cooperation, offers of cooperation in order to adapt those successful programmes to other countries, other developing countries. And third, you have a finance pillar in terms, of course, if you visit the platform as a developing country, and you select a programme which has been implemented, let's say, in India or in Brazil, and then you talk with a specialist in terms of adapting this programme to your country. And then you want some financing. So, the platform offers these three pillars. The Climate Change Task Force is mobilisation against climate change. It has two pillars. One is the reset action pillar, other is the reset financing pillar. The reset action pillar is a locus where you can find expertise to devise national plans to fight climate change, structured plans, not just programmes. And of course, the resetting finance pillar is to develop new financial mechanisms to help developing countries to fight climate change.

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WION: How has the Indian presidency of G20 helped, or has been a template for the Brazilian presidency for the G20 Summit?

Kenneth da Nóbrega: Okay, if I focus on the negotiation of the joint statement that India so successfully negotiated last year, the fact that you could manage to reach consensus in those paragraphs which are about geopolitical scenarios. Of course, geopolitical hotspots of the world, the fact that you achieved that, paved the way for Brazil to negotiate successfully. The call for action for the reform of global governance, and governance institutions, and the fact that you managed, managed to pull off this agreement on geopolitical issues in your joint statement was key for us to build & to achieve, also some progress in this area.

WION: How do you view India, Brazil, and South Africa as developing nations, leading the G20 through the Troika?

Kenneth da Nóbrega: Yes, I think that continuity is a keyword. I think that the Brazilian presidency, to a considerable extent, is a continuity of your G20 presidency, in the sense of giving more legitimacy to the G20. A key result in that area was the accession of the African Union to the G20. Another key aspect of continuity is making sure that the interests and the priorities of the global south countries remain on the agenda of the G20, of course, alongside the priorities of the developed world. The third aspect of continuity is the fact that India has demonstrated a tireless disposition to build consensus. As I mentioned, when responding to your previous question, the way India managed to reach a consensus regarding these paragraphs on geopolitics.

WION: How much has the Russia-Ukraine war been a challenge to form the consensus?

Kenneth da Nóbrega: Of course, the geopolitical scenario is quite complex. I think that India also faced a very complex geopolitical scenario. The scenario has evolved throughout this year. It's a very dynamic scenario on the ground, but I trust that the countries also value the fact that the G20 is a unique coordination group that brings together developing & developed countries, countries which are now facing tensions at different sides of the table when it comes to geopolitics. I think that this idea, which I think India has contributed to, is that there must be a place where countries sit around the table and agree on how to discuss these burning questions.

WION: What is the current state of the joint statement?

Kenneth da Nóbrega: Well, the negotiating process, of course, is conducted behind closed doors. So, we can just guess how the dynamics are evolving behind closed doors. I have just read in the newspaper that some progress has been made. So, I hope, I hope that this is a very good sign that we reach a consensus on a good joint, joint statement, not only a joint statement but a joint statement with content. Of course, the geopolitical scenario is complex, but this is the reality, our reality.

WION: Could you elaborate on Brazil's focus on reforming multilateral groupings during its G20 presidency?

Kenneth da Nóbrega: Well, I think that this call for action, which we approved because of the second foreign ministers meeting, which took place, by the way, within the headquarters of the United Nations. So, this call for action consolidates the perception that there must be a reform. The reform must lead to more transparency, more inclusiveness, to more accountability in terms of the UN delivering results to the whole membership.